Hello,
We are pleased to announce a new educational website about lichens.
It provides educational material, mostly graphical; and it has two
versions of a synoptic key - one designed for persons unfamiliar with
lichen morphology and biology, another with less assistance, but more
species characters to use in the key.
The site provides many photographs, explanatory text, and a
database of species characters that can be queried to see photographs of
each taxon. There is some habitat and location data, as well as a
literature file keyed to the genus name. In all there are currently
about 25 pages of education text, and 66 species in the synoptic key.
It all rests on a new software, HyperSQL, which interfaces the web
browser directly with the database (HyperSQL information available on
the page.)
The development of this software and applications of it are being funded
by NSF.
This is our demo version of LichenLand and we would appreciate all
comments and suggestions about how to make the site more useful to you.
Species additions and upgrades to taxa images will be ongoing. We
intend to add about 50 more taxa images to the synoptic key in the next
month.
We hope you will enjoy this site and pass on the URL to any
friends or teachers that may find it useful.
LichenLand URL is:
http://mgd.orst.edu/hyperSQL/lichenland/index.html
NOTE: the SQL in the hyperSQL must be in caps and some people have found
it necessary to add www. in front of mgd.
Have fun!
Sherry K. Pittam
Taxonomic Database Specialist
Microbial Germplasm Database
Oregon State University
