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Any Botanists / taxonomists here that use Outline Software?
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Posted by Andrew Mckay
Feb 21, 2020 at 07:59 PM
As a keen gardener and nurseryman I spend a lot of time trying to improve my knowledge of plants.
Currently I store my information on google drive and create simple folders for family, genus and species. Within the species folder i have documents with information on that plant
It is pretty clunky but it does work and the browsing through folders does help my learning
I was wondering if any botanist/taxonomists could share what software they use in their field for knowledge gathering and storing and their experience with it
Posted by Amontillado
Feb 22, 2020 at 02:09 PM
Sounds like a great showcase for categorization. I’m not a botanist, but would appreciate examples of how this would be organized.
It seems to me that a strict hierarchy would be enough to pigeonhole most things, but then there’s cross-species events, like mules versus donkeys. New species and alleles would be of interest - but I’m speaking as a non-botanist with crushing ignorance of evolution.
A system supporting tags or keywords would go a long way to providing the needed structure. I always remember using The Brain fondly, because of its jump thoughts, which were more useful to me in those days than tags.
Posted by Jon Polish
Feb 22, 2020 at 03:11 PM
I can think of several programs that I would use. One function that you might consider is the ability to incorporate pictures. TheBrai nis an excellent choice. Ultra Recall and InfoQube should be on your list, If you need to share your creation, you might consider NoteCase and MyInfo. both can export to html with the outline tree in a separate pane. All these programs feature transclusion which will become necessary. RightNote will export nicely to html with a search feature but does not include transclusion.
Sounds lie a fun project.
Jon
Posted by Andrew Mckay
Feb 24, 2020 at 03:45 AM
You are correct , it is very hierarchical with each species of plant having its place in the hierarchy
As a matter of interest the hierarchy is not constant and is undergoing constant change with often heated debate and much arguments of where a species belongs. This can lead to lumping or splitting of genus/species and strongly opposing views ( it can really heated at times )
I am interested in Family, genus and species rank although the hierarchy does go higher
As an example on of my favourite tress was known as Aloe barberae , that is it belonged in the Aloe Genus which is in the Asphodelaceae family
The Aloe genus is very large and has close to 500 species
However it was decided that a new genus for the tree aloe should be created in a new subfamily and it is thus placed in a new genus Aloidendron so it is now known as Aloidendron barberae
This goes on all the time and especially now that DNA technology is being used more and more
Below is the full classification and every plant has a unique classification until someone disagrees and it can change
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asphodelaceae
Subfamily: Asphodeloideae
Genus: Aloidendron
Species: A. barberae
Amontillado wrote:
Sounds like a great showcase for categorization. I’m not a botanist, but
>would appreciate examples of how this would be organized.
>
>It seems to me that a strict hierarchy would be enough to pigeonhole
>most things, but then there’s cross-species events, like mules versus
>donkeys. New species and alleles would be of interest - but I’m speaking
>as a non-botanist with crushing ignorance of evolution.
>
>A system supporting tags or keywords would go a long way to providing
>the needed structure. I always remember using The Brain fondly, because
>of its jump thoughts, which were more useful to me in those days than
>tags.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Feb 24, 2020 at 10:03 AM
If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d recommend FileMaker Pro.
You could (relatively) easily create your own database (with relational elements, if desired; useful for maintaining multiple tables of e.g. phyla etc.). In view of the fierce debates you describe, this might be better than using a straight hierarchical system.
An interesting alternative that I haven’t had the time to explore in detail yet is Ninox. This takes the form of a Cloud database supported by macOS, iPadOS, iOS and Android apps (no Windows app as yet). It’s supposed to be a friendlier alternative to FileMaker. It’s certainly cheaper! The German developers are also very amiable and responsive.
Cheers,
Bill