AOL Botany

Ancient Bristlecone Pine

• This Methuselah may be the only tree with its own home page. Learn all about the 4,725-year old bristlecone pine, especially relating to its growth in the White Inyo Mountain Range of California. Of course, there are JPG images.

Carnivorous Plant Database Browser

• Well, shut my Venus flytrap. Rick Walker, an alarmingly energetic project engineer for HP Laboratories in Palo Alto, California offers an extensive, searchable database about one of his many interests: plants that eat things. With links to drawings, photos, environments and other stuff relating to the 3,000 or so carniverous plants hanging about.

Plants of the Machiguenga

• No telling if these pages will further his funding, but Ethan Russo's account of his rainforest research is a complex, richly rewarding read. The neurologist trooped off to eastern Peru, spending two months looking for headache treatments among little-known plants often threatened with extinction. He's brought back photos of flora and fauna and friends, along with a log of misadventures and a lengthy academic paper. Pharmaceutical execs should get in touch with this guy.

WWW Virtual Library: Plant Biology (Biosciences)

• Spores and molds and fungus: oh my! If you love cell-based life, try putting this page on your microscope slide. A comprehensive page, offering links to biology and bioscience departments at universities all over the United States. Comes from Harvard.

The American Bamboo Society

• It's a jungle out there; this page can help you appreciate it. A plenitude of info about bamboo including society chapters throughout the nation, nursery gossip, scientific research and everything else you could possibly want to know about the panda's favorite food.

American Society of Plant Physiologists

• A professional society for plant scientists, the American Society of Plant Physiologists offers botanists and other plant experts authoritative information, professional contacts, scientific meetings, journal articles and relevant scholarly links.

Cacti and Other Succulents

• A useful resource page for those who love, grow or study an individual cactus or many cacti. Links to discussions, biological material, societies, gardens, and the like.

The Dendrome Project Home Page

• Find your connection to serious forest science at the Dendrome Project home page. These folks from across the molecular biology map list resources for tracing the genomes of forest trees. See data collected from many sources, look through a forestry dictionary, check out lab protocols, or peruse other flora fun.

The Gunnera Page

• The Gunnera genus not only contains some of the oldest species of flowering plants, but one species, G. manicata, is considered to be the world's largest herbaceous perennial. It's the only angiosperm genus that forms a symbiotic relationship with a nitrogen-fixing blue-green alga. Though it's viewed by some naturalists as a noxious weed pest, this page's thus-far-anonymous author has seen fit to provide a veritable jungle of gunnera factoids. Nicely done.

Missouri Botanical Garden

• See what's in bloom at this historic St. Louis institution. And then read up on the botanical info. The connections to the research division and the scientific publications catalog are particularly valuable for the professional.

Mycellium

• Mushroom enthusiasts will go gaga over this massive resource devoted to all things mycological. An online extension of the monthly newsletter of the Colorado Mycological Society, this site offers all sorts of goodies, including a whimsical glossary as well as up-to-the-minute reports of mushroom fruitings all around the world.

Photosynthesis Center of Arizona State University

• Students and faculty at the Photosynthesis Center are trying to unravel the mysteries of the process that converts sunlight into stored energy. Since we depend on photosynthesis for the majority of our food and fiber, this is research that makes a difference. Delve into their findings, link to other research sites, even apply for a job here.

WWW Botany and Ecology Sites

• There's a lotta life out there, and this nearly points to it all. It contains links to some 600 ecology and botany sites and was created by Anthony R. Brach of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Harvard University Herbaria.

The Amazing Story of Kudzu

• This site from the University of Alabama tells the amazing story of that crazy vine kudzu, which can grow as fast as one foot a day and is everpresent in the American South, although not a native plant species.

Australian Journal of Plant Physiology

• Using your green thumb, click onto this text-only site for the AJPP, an international academic journal of plant function. You won't find articles here -- what you will find is an overview of the AJPP's editorial policy and info on how to subscribe and purchase back issues.

Botany at Texas A&M

• If you missed your taxonomy of flowering plants class this week, just check out the lecture content on this, the Botany 201 home page. Could be just the edge you need.

Dad's World (aka John Dhabolt)

• Cambridge, Massachusetts-based John Dhabolt feels it's time to "give back to the mycological community some of what I've gained from it over the course of the past twenty years." Specifically, that means a detailed, effective and entertaining section on mushroom taxonomy, folklore, edibility and uses. His other general-interest sites aren't bad either.

Flora of Muskoka

• Annotated checklist of vascular plants from the University of Toronto. Features bet-settling facts on everything from ferns to orchids found in the Muskoka District of Ontario, Canada.

Lehle Seeds

• When you need your Arabidopsis, whatcha gonna do? Call this Texas company because its the only commercial source of this cabbage/radish cousin that plant science researchers use as a model organism to study plant developmental processes. There is a great section of links to plant science as well.

Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre

• The UK center grows and sells Arabidopsis seeds and the site is loaded with information about them, with links to plant biology sites on the Net. There is a searchable database, growing tips, a picture book and more.

Plant Tissue Culture Information Exchange

• Looking for a place to exchange information on plant tissue cultures? Read a review of plant chimeras or a paper on protoplast isolation at this site by Dan Lineberger of Texas A&M University. Some documents require Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download here.

Root Biology and Mycorrhiza Research Group

• Find out about mycorrhiza and root biology here, or meet the research personnel at Canada's University of Guelph Botany Department.

Texas A&M University Plant Diversity Information Center

• Information about plants native to the Lone Star State grows here, from threatened flora to the State flower, the Bluebonnet.

Tree Physiology

• The Web home to a Canadian monthly academic journal that publishes both technical reviews and original research reports on all aspects of tree physiology.

Wisconsin Fast Plants

• Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison describe rapid-cycling brassicas, plants related to cabbage and mustard that are ideally suited to serve as living models for investigative studies in classrooms. It includes an FAQ, a link to a fast plant listserv and info on how to obtain brassicas.

Base Angiosperm Listing

• This is one of Texas A&M University's detailed botanical pages destined to be used primarily by serious botany wonks and wonkettes. Reason: It's muchum difficultum for mere plant lovers to understand the plethora of Latin names.