Knowplants.org

Find games, teaching aids, pictures and other tools to make plant science education a fun experience

The site (under continuous improvement) has categorized online resources that are available for any one interested in plants to use. More specifically teachers, students, scientists and public relations professionals can browse through and find some interesting web sites about plant biology.

Plant science web directories

• UN Lincoln AgNIC - A comprehensive searchable list of plant science websites
  • kid friendly version of the above resource
• Scott's botanical list - very comprehensive categorised collection of plant science websites
• Botany directory listings
  • Google

Plant species databases 

Comprehensive databases

• USDA Plants Database - Search for information about a plant species of your choice or plant species in your state and more...
• Neoflora - [DEAD LINK!] Claims to be the world's largest plant database
• Dave's Garden - Look up information about a plant species of choice (has links to commerical seed vendors)
• UConn Plant database - Search for plant species with traits you like (e.g. evergreen shrub with yellow flowers)
• Database of plant databases - Search for plant databases by name or content
• USDA Forest service plant database - Search for information about a plant species of choice by name or trait
• International plant names index - Search and download plant information in different formats
• TROPICOS - A plant information database from the Missouri Botanical Garden

Specialized databases

• Crop database - an alphabetic list of crop plants and information about them
• Plant Care - Database of indoor plants and information on plant care
• Conifers - Database of gymnosperms (non flowering plants)
• Carnivorous plants - Database of carnivorous plants by International Carnivorous Plants Society
• Poisonous plants - List of poisonous plants and symptoms from Cornell University
• Tropical plants - List of tropical plants (The Amazon plants)
• Plants for a future - Search information about useful plants by name or use (informative, but no images)
• Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical databases - Searchable databases to identify plants producing phytochemicals having specific activities (e.g. anti cancer compounds, antioxidants)

Native / invasive plant databases

United States

• Plant species in your state - Arizona (in progress) - California - Florida - Illinois - Iowa - Maine - Michigan - Minnesota - Oklahoma - Oregan - South Carolina - Texas - Washington -  Wisconsin 
• List of state native plant societies (Thanks to South Carolina native plant society)
• Invasive plant species - USDA list of invasive plant databases
• Invasive plant species of the United States - from New York Botanical Garden

Canada

• Native plants of Canada - Listings by province
• Invasive species of Canada - search for invasive species in Canada 

Other

• Global invasive species database - Search by country and/or type of life form
• Australian Network for Plant Conservation - Native plant species of Australia

Weed Identification guides

• Weed science Society of America
• UIUC (Illionis) weed id guide
• Virginia Tech weed id guide
• Iowa state weed id guide
• UC Davis weed id guide
• Weeds Australia
• Mizzou weed id guide
• South Dakota State University weed guide
• Poison Ivy, Summac and Oak

• Facts, Pictures and info (by Jim Dunphy) - user submitted pictures and identification
• Medicinenet - Identification and remedies
• Poison-ivy.org - Seasonal images, Identification poster and control services
• UFL's extension page - diagrams and descriptions of all three plants
  
• Bay Area Medical Information - pictures and info on all three plants
  

Herbaria and Institutes

• Herbaria directory - Searchable directory from the New York botanical gardens (The search engine is not very friendly; e.g. recognises 'U.S.A', but not 'USA').
• Internet Directory for Botany - List of botanical gardens and arboreta
• Additional directories
  • Google
  • Garden Web
  • Botanical gardens in Australia

Careers in plant science

• ASPB job bank - Job database and career discussion from the American Society of Plant Biologists

• Careers in botany - Plant science career advise from the Botanical Society of America
• Research careers in plant science -  A nice article from Science magazine's career resources
• Careers in Plant Pathology - Know about becoming an expert on plant diesease

Teaching resources

K-12

• Plants for kids - A list of websites providing information about plant science; aimed at kids
• SAPS - Science and Plants for Schools; initiative between scientists and teachers to improve plant science education
• Scholastic - Books about plants
• MN Dept of Natural resources - Activities for teaching plant science
• Teachnology - Plant science themes
• Education World - Teaching plant science
• Proteacher - Plant science teaching activity ideas
• Teacher's guide - Plant flowers
• Boring botany - How to make botany interesting to students?
• Songs for teaching - A song about plants and animals
• emints - List of useful plant science teaching resources on the internet
• Mad Scientist Network - Teachers/Students can ask questions about science
• ASPB Education foundation -  List of resources including some excellent radio shows and podcasts
• Virtual herbarium (CSU, Aus) - Nice resource to learn leaf structure, has pictures of different types of leaves
• Supermarket botany - nice teaching resource to help teach plant parts. incl. work sheets as well.
  

Science Fair Projects

• USDA - Agriculture science fair projects
• Discovery Education - List of plant science fair ideas
• About.com - includes additional links as well
• Few additional sites: Crystal clear - All science fair projects - AgClassroom
• Science Buddies - Includes information about how to design a project

Undergraduate education

• National Biological Information Infrastructure - List of categorised teaching resources for botany (check links on the left side)
• Botany on-line - Internet text book of botany (covers a range of topics)
• UCLA general botany - Website detailing plant structures; has many sublinks and pictures
• Seed biology - all about seeds: structure, physiology and processes
• Botanical Society of America - Tips on teaching plant science
• Misconceptions to avoid while teaching botany - Article 1, Article 2
• Newsgroup - Bionet newsgroup about plant science education
• American Journal of botany - Teaching plant science in the 21st century (Richards and Lee 2002)
• TIEE - teaching issues and experiments in ecology
• Classical Genetics Simulator - simulates genetics inheritance including linkage over generations; customizable teaching tool.
• Virtual crops (UC, Davis) - Anatomy and other info for tomato, rice, cotton and grapes

Arabidopsis teaching resources

• PREP (Virginia Tech) - Online lab notebook, promotes communication between scientists and high school techers, students
• Greenomes - Lab and bioinformatics exercises that introduce genetics and genome to students 
• Arabidopsis.org - List of useful Arabidopsis teaching resources 
• Enhancer trap lines - Different tissue-specific expression patterns useful for teaching (Geisler et al. 2002. Plant Physiology)
• efp browser - Pictographic representation of gene expression data for Arabidopsis
• Lehle  seeds - Arabidopsis/plant biology teaching resources
•  
  Seeds for teaching - Lehle, NASC

• Garden forever - Resource website for gardening related information
• Serenata Flowers - Plants and Gardening for kids
• Community Forestry - A resource from Cornell Univ to help communities manage their urban trees
  

• Plant images - An organized collection of plant images from the Botanical Society of America
• Noble foundation plant image gallery - searchable collection of images of plants and plant cells
• Plant facts - collection of images searchable by keyword
• Floral images - a collection of flowers in North-Western Europe, particularly the British Isles
• Plant pictures - collection of plant images catergorised by families (mostly native wild plants)
•  Plant image databases - Long list of plant image databases (some links are outdated/slow)
• Image Bank - another list of plant image databases
• Dennis Kunkel Microscopy - Nice collection of micrographs of plants (strictly requires written permission before use even for educational purposes)
• Science Photo Library - Plant science related images searchable based on country
• FotoSearch - A collection of searchable images (includes lots of non-scientific images which may be useful for a presentation)
• CanStockPhoto - offers professional royalty free stock images starting at $1. might require free membership for lower price.
• Flowerinfo - beautiful pictures of a number of flowers and background information about flower types/groups.
• ArtPlantae Today - Information on plant art, events etc. Companion website (ArtPlantae Books)
• Cells - a collection of high resolution images of plant cells and organelles from the Danforth Plant Science Center

• Plants in motion - a collection of video recordings of plant movements
• PBS teacher source - Collection of videos and techer guides (Select age category and subject to see the list of materials)
• Library video - a collection of plant science videos for purchase (different choices available for different age groups/purpose)
• Stock photography - collection of plant videos

• Wisconsin on-line - collection of learning objecs (animations) that can be used for teaching (requires free registration and permission to use)
• U Alberta Instructional multimedia - Animations about botany, cell biology, genetics, microbiology etc.
• Educypedia - A long list of links to biology animations
• Virtual plants - a neat resource from INRA, France and Univ of Queensland; has plant animations
• Library of crop technology - some neat animated lessons on plant biology
• Science animations - List of science animations useful for teaching (incl. plant biology)
• Cells alive - a collection of interactive images, animations and videos of cells and microbes (includes a plant cell too)
• Wiley Interscience - Interactive animations about cells
• Science Learning Network - List of useful science learning links
• Life cycle - Animations about life cycles of different organisms 
• Edumedia - A few nice plant animations (free light version; full version needs subscription)
• Micrometeorology - Animations about plant water relations
• Science Optics - Zoom in from space to the nucleus of a carbon atom in the DNA of an oak tree's epidermal cell in Florida! (Cool?)

• Planet Biotech - a suite of three interactive games to learn about plant biotechnology (under development)
• Ecokids - A few games about plants and ecology
• Bet on the farm - Try virtual farming in Ohio, manage a farm and see how you fare!
• Simfarm - manage a farm with crops and animals (from the makers of simcity)
• JC-schools - a collection of games and teaching materials from various sources about plants
• Wild kids - fun discovery about nature (UNDER CONSTRUCTION!)
• picadome - Collection of educational activities and games about plants
• Primary games - Few word and puzzle games about plants