The last 18 months have seen the major undertaking of transferring the database to a new host, which we hope has gone unnoticed by our forgiving users. We have also checked the fungal and insect names, checking synonyms and adding the authorities with information supplied by the Natural History Museum. Some work still has to be completed on this but the majority has been done and the adddition of the authorities is particulary important.
The next 18 months should see the continuation of updates, the addition of photographs and descriptions, the addition of seed germination data, and the copletion of the fungal and insect names check, and linking to the NBN gateway.
Funding : The British Ecological Society have generously funded the Ecological Flora again for the coming year enabling us to undertake the major revisions that have been made. Further funding always needs to be sourced. Contact Prof Alastair Fitter, or Henry Ford from the contacts page.
Associated Fungi, and Phytophagous Insects: Authorities have been added, together with synonymy and name status, from data generously supplied by the Natural History Museum. Errors remain ours however and some typographic errors remain and it is hoped that these will be cleared up in the coming months.
Updates of Ecological characteristics and Plant Descriptions: Over 37 plants have had their ecological characteristics updated and a further plants 700 have had complete descriptions added to the database including Carex.
New Search Facilities : In response to requests from users a new search facility has been provided which allows the user to retrieve ecological characteristic data data chosen from a multiplie choice list from a number of species (similarly chosen but restricted to 20 species). This should enable users to retrieve data from taxononically or ecologically related groups of species with greater ease than in the past.
Links: Have a look at Cheshire County Council's Econet. One of the best publically available ecological web sites around.
Requests : We are always looking for more data. If you have any, we would be very grateful if you could contribute. Useful photographs and drawings will be much appreciated.