Australian Botanic Gardens Forum
Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens

Census of Plants in Australian Botanic Gardens

Data structure

The datafile is structured with a single record for each taxon, with one line or record for each entry.

The list file has the same structure as the datafile but long lines are wrapped for ease of printing.

The record structure consists of:

a letter code in a column for each contributing botanic gardens
an assigned family name for the genus truncated to 5 characters
an asterisk indicating if the taxon is introduced
an 'X' if the taxon is a hybrid
the genus, species, cultivar name and author as a single string.

Each botanic gardens is represented in this presentation of the database by a single letter code:

        Australian National Botanic Gardens      :  C
        Adelaide Botanic Gardens                 :  A
        Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney            :  S
        Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne         :  M
        Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens                 :  L
        Wittunga Botanic Gardens                 :  W
        Kings Park and Botanic Garden            :  K
        Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens        :  T

This is a continuing project. The next stage involves collaboration between the botanic gardens to adjust their databases so that the next compilation of the list lacks most of the duplication of the present list. Mechanisms will be established to ensure that the list is updated on a regular basis.

The list itself is very large a the moment (> 2 Mb), so it should not be downloaded unless absolutely necessary.

Updated 14 October, 2002 , Murray Fagg (anbg-info@anbg.gov.au)