An online resource for monocot plants
eMonocot is linking together monocot taxonomists by providing support and tools to enable communities to manage their taxonomic data online and in doing so contribute to eMonocot.
What is eMonocot?
- eMonocot is a global online biodiversity information resource for monocotyledons, which include grasses, orchids, sedges, palms, lilies and yams and are 20% of flowering plants.
- All of the information is brought together in this site, the eMonocot portal.
- You can use eMonocot to identify monocot plants anywhere in the world, understand their diversity and evolutionary relationships, and explore a wealth of information including descriptions, images, conservation, geographical and ecological data. Find out more about the eMonocot portal features.
The project
- The project is being funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) via a consortium grant to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Oxford University and the Natural History Museum (NHM).
- The content in eMonocot is being compiled by monocot plant systematists from many different institutions both within the UK and globally. Their data is being contributed through community focused online taxonomic information resources, including new websites created as part of this project.
- Compiling taxonomic information about plants is a huge task that relies on specialist knowledge. Global participation is essential in developing and sustaining both the data and the expert taxonomic communities that generate and enhance it. Therefore, in addition to project staff dedicated to compiling content, eMonocot is linking together monocot taxonomists by providing support and tools to enable communities to manage their taxonomic data online and in doing so contribute to eMonocot.
Content
eMonocot at a glance
Assembling content for ~90k accepted taxa is a significant challenge.
- The initial taxonomic classification of monocot plants presented in the eMonocot Portal is that in the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. This classification provides the taxonomic and geographic information for ca. 90,000 accepted taxa (ca. 70,000 species).
In addition to the World Checklist, we are aggregating content from 41 systems, which cover particular taxonomic groups in greater depth or which provide additional types of data.
eMonocot builds upon existing collaborations and projects within the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) such as Palmweb and Scratchpads, in addition to CATE (including CATE-Araceae) and GrassBase – The online world grass flora. Content from these taxonomic resources and eMonocot scratchpads are aggregated together in the eMonocot portal.
The eMonocot Scratchpad sites are available to anyone interested in contributing to eMonocot (individuals or groups), and are being supported by dedicated eMonocot project staff. You can see a list of current eMonocot scratchpads here.
- The content is imported in the portal using the Darwin Core Archive format.
Get involved
eMonocot offers you several ways of getting involved!
If you are interested in contributing content to eMonocot by joining an existing scratchpad community or forming a new one, please contact us. You can find more information on how to contribute data to eMonocot in our help guide here.