Dipterocarpaceae Data Base
The Dipterocarpaceae Data Base was begun in 1993 by ABW Associates Ltd., based at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and has had several other contributors since then. Originally used as a taxonomic tool in the production of the Manuals of Dipterocarps for Foresters, it has grown to include much more information, including records of all the specimens in the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and all specimens of Thai Dipterocarpaceae.
On completion of the Manuals of Dipterocarps for Foresters, the database was taken on by Dr. Rachun Pooma (BKF). Between 1999 and 2003, he made records of all specimens of Dipterocarpaceae collected in Thailand, more than doubling the size of the specimen records file. He then attached latitude and longitude coordinates to as many of them as he could and downloaded these records into ARC/INFO in order to carry out an area cladistic analysis. His work was funded by the Danish Environmental Research Programme’s project entitled, “Forests and People in Thailand” and led to his Ph.D. of Kasetsart University. Full details of his work can be seen at the Bangkok Forest Herbarium website .
In 2002, Professor Peter Ashton donated his collection of record cards to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Each of the 20,000 or so cards represents a specimen of a dipterocarp seen by Professor Ashton. His intention was that the cards should be added to the database in Edinburgh. As a first step towards this goal, two students of Aberdeen University digitised all the cards relating to Philippines species between May and August 2003. Mr. Zisis Gagkas and Mr. Erling John Karlberg, studied distributions of Philippines species and reassessed the IUCN categories of threat for each species, based on distributions of collecting localities plotted on maps of the extent of forests in the Philippines in 1900 and 1990.
All data have been entered by hand following data standards adopted by the Taxonomic Databases Working Group. The main standards used are Brummitt & Powell Authors of Plant Names, RBG Kew for authorities of plant names, Stafleu & Cowan Taxonomic Literature, ed.2, Regnum Vegetabile, Utrecht for abbreviated names of books and Botanico-Periodicum-Huntianum B-P-H, Pittsburgh for abbreviated names of periodicals.
The intention behind this release is to give access to taxonomic and specimen information. Please send any comments to Mark Newman,.
The search forms are set up to permit searches for taxon names or specimens. The details given for a taxon name are the synonyms, the basionym, the place of publication of the name, and information about type specimens. A link is supplied from the abbreviated name of the publication to its full name. The details given for a specimen are the collector, collection number, herbarium to which it belongs, latest determination, collecting locality, collecting date and whether the specimen has flowers or fruits. A link is supplied from the abbreviated name of the herbarium to its full name and address.
The Dipterocarpaceae Data Base is held in the RBGE PANDORA database system. This DOS-based application is written in Advanced Revelation, and has a highly relational structure.
The data set is worldwide in coverage, and currently holds 1,477 plant names, 418 authority strings, 1541 people, 10,952 plant records, and 2,873 gazetteer entries.
Page developed and maintained by Mark Newman and Martin Pullan