Australian Plant Name Index - Overview

Overview

Recognised by Australian herbaria as the authoritative source for Australian plant nomenclature, it is the core component of Australia's Virtual Herbarium, a collaborative project with A$10 million funding, aimed at providing integrated online access to the data and specimen collections of Australia's major herbaria.

Two query interfaces are offered:

• Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), a full query interface that delivers full results, with no automatic interpretation, and
• What's Its Name (WIN), a less powerful query interface that delivers concise results, augmented with automatic (and not always correct) inference as to the currency.

Originally the brainchild of Nancy Tyson Burbidge, it began as a four-volume printed work consisting of 3,055 pages, and containing over 60,000 plant names. Compiled by Arthur Chapman, it was part of the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS). In 1991 it was made available as an online database, and handed over to the Australian National Botanic Gardens. Two years later, responsibility for its maintenance has given to the newly formed Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research.