Go Botany! On-line interactive keys using innovative keying algorithms and technologies

Background/Question/Methods

To communicate the importance of plants to the ecology of the planet and human health, we must devise new ways to engage people – especially technology-oriented and primarily urban youth -- in observing, identifying, and learning about plants.  Yet “plant-blindness” is a well-known affliction among many people, who see the world as uniformly green and are intimidated by botany and science generally.  How can we harness the attraction, fun, and power of new technologies to entice people to get outdoors, explore plants, and share their excitement?

Results/Conclusions

Go Botany, developed by New England Wild Flower Society (Framingham, MA) and funded by NSF, is an innovative set of interactive identification keys and learning tools that operates free via the internet on the desktop or in the field on tablets and mobile devices.  It will be the definitive on-line Flora of New England, covering more than 3,500 plant taxa native and naturalized in the region.  However, Go Botany can be tailored to any flora in the world; for example, the Smithsonian Institution will use this technology to develop a key to the orchids of North America.  Go Botany builds on an extensive database covering plant morphology, habitat affinities, synonymies, look-alike taxa, and species distributions.  Thousands of photographs, technical drawings, and range maps richly illustrate the keys and species information pages.  The keys permit the user to answer questions based on the characters they see, and intelligent, dynamic algorithms deliver questions in order of their informativeness for distinguishing taxa.  The PlantShare section will be a virtual space where plant enthusiasts, teachers, and students can connect, share discoveries and curricula, and develop collaborative checklists for sites.  Go Botany will also provide clickable dichotomous keys for botanists preferring traditional approaches.  Together with the Yale-Peabody Museum (CT), Chewonki Foundation (ME), Montshire Museum of Science (VT), and other educational partners, we are creating a novel web tool useful in schools, field classes, citizen science networking, trail guides, and museum displays.  Land managers and conservation biologists also can use Go Botany to inventory and record plants in conservation areas.  Systematic evaluation indicates that Go Botany enhances interest in plants among a wide variety of users.  Plant-newbies, amateur and professional botanists, educators, and students at all levels will find these tools useful.