Northern Ontario Plant Database

What Information Can Be Found on the NOPD Website

Information currently on the website

The Northern Ontario Plant Database (NOPD) documents information from herbarium specimens housed in our partner herbaria. To date, combined information from over 55,000 herbarium specimens has been received from Algoma University College (AUC), Great Lakes Forestry Centre (SSMF), Lakehead University (LKHD), Lake Superior State University (LSSU), Laurentian University (SLU), Ontario Forest Research Centre (OFRI), Quetico Provincial Park (QPP), the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), and Sault College of Applied Arts and Technologies (SCAAT). Northern Ontario data from the Natural Heritage Information Centre (NHIC), Northern Bioscience, and Nipissing University will be added before the end of this academic year.

Data presented on the NOPD website is first entered on Excel Spreadsheets by students employed by each of our educational partners. Once entered, data is sent to the NOPD office at Great Lakes Forestry Centre, where Algoma University College students check for accuracy and formatting consistency. Edited data files are then downloaded to an Oracle database. Editing is complete for all records at Algoma University College, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Ontario Forest Research Institute, and Sault College and these have been downloaded.

Each entry includes all information presented on the herbarium specimen label, including the species name, accession number, location, date of collection, habitat, and the collector's name and collection number. From this data, a digital map is generated showing the approximate location of where each specimen was collected. The map appears at the bottom of each specimen record, which can be accessed by clicking on the accession number of each specimen. To protect sensitive and rare species, location data beyond degrees and minutes is not displayed to assure that actual populations cannot be located though online sources. Persons who require more detailed distributions for legitimate research purposes should contact the curator at each herbarium.

Information recently added to the website

• Throughout the summer, original descriptions of over 65 species included in the Ontario Forest Ecosystem Classification (FEC) have been added to the website. Most of these pages include original images or links to other websites with images. Most of the webpages produced for the NOPD include images supplied by either Susan J. Meades (scanned images from 35 mm slides and illustrations), NOPD project leader, or Derek Goertz (digital images), a biology student at Algoma University College. Where photographs were not available locally, links are provided to other webpages containing photographs or illustrations, primarily the websites of Borealforest.org, Gallery of Connecticut Wildflowers, and the USDA PLANTS Database.
• A few webpages include digital images generously provided by John Maunder, from A Digital Flora of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Information to be added throughout the academic year 2004-2005

As editing continues, several thousand more herbarium records will be downloaded to the database throughout the year, including the remainder of the entered herbarium records from Lakehead University, Lake Superior State University, Laurentian University, and the Royal Ontario Museum.

Other information that will be added to the NOPD website this year includes:

• data from new specimens, which will soon be mounted and accessioned, that were collected during the past three field seasons by the NOPD team.
• a separate checklist of Northern Ontario Species.
• Ojibway (Anishinabek) common names compiled by Danny Sayers, a young man from Batchawana First Nation, who is working with the NOPD project through an HRDC grant to the Great Lakes Forestry Centre.
• additional descriptive webpages produced by Vascular Plant Systematics (Biol 3306) students at Algoma University College, as part of their class assignments.
• images used in Biol 3306 (Vascular Plant Systematics), taught at Algoma University College.
• nomenclature and synonymy updates, based on new editions of Flora of North America and current journal articles; these updates will be done on a continual basis.