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Subject Guides
Subject Guides are key resources organized and updated by your friendly librarians at Cowles.
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Botany
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Full search of the encyclopedia plus science news, definitions, biographies, illustrations, animations and more.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
"Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions have joined to form the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project. The group is developing a strategy and operational plan to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections. This literature will be available through a global 'biodiversity commons.'"
BoDD (Botanical Dermatology Database)
"BoDD is an electronic re-incarnation of BOTANICAL DERMATOLOGY by John Mitchell & Arthur Rook, which was originally published in 1979 by Greengrass Ltd, Vancouver [ISBN 0-88978-047-1]."
Botanicus.org
"Botanicus is a freely accessible, Web-based encyclopedia of historic botanical literature from the Missouri Botanical Garden Library. Botanicus is made possible through support from the W.M. Keck Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation."
Concise Encyclopedia of Plant Pathology

Available online. "An easy-to-use reference source covering the full range of subject areas associated with plant pathology.
This comprehensive volume covers the entire field of plant pathology. It does not merely define the numerous subjects covered but describes them in detail. Each section of this book serves as a comprehensive overview of a given area, providing breadth of coverage for students and depth of coverage for research professionals."
Dictionary of Plant Sciences

Available online "This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date dictionary of botany available. Drawing on the information contained in the acclaimed Oxford Dictionary of Natural History, the text has been fully revised to give wide coverage on topics including biochemistry, plant physiology, cytology, ecology, genetics, evolution, bio-geography, earth history, and the earth sciences. There is worldwide coverage of taxonomic groups: one-third of the entries are devoted to taxa, from bacteria and fungi to the main groups of flowering and non-flowering plants."
eNature Field Guides
A collection of online field guides covering a variety of plants and animals. Includes a feature that provides a personalized list of species by ZIP code. Multimedia features include things like downloadable recordings of bird songs and calls.
Handbook of Vegetable Pests

Available online. "The Handbook of Vegetable Pests is intended to assist anyone in need of an easy-to-use, comprehensive survey of all pests likely to be encountered in North America. This Handbook provides thorough identification guides, descriptions of pest life history, and pest management recommendations. The text is well illustrated with hundreds of easy-to-use line drawings, is cross-referenced to the professional and scientific literature, and includes color plates for ease of insect pest identification."
Macquarie Dictionary of Trees & Shrubs

Available online. "The Macquarie Dictionary of Trees and Shrubs is a comprehensive listing of the plants found in Australian gardens, including native trees, shrubs and climbers, as well as those introduced from other parts of the world."
"The entries are arranged in simple alphabetical order, under both the botanical and common names. Each plant is fully and clearly described with all relevant botanical information, together with gardening tips and much to interest the general reader."
"The back section of the book contains The Grower's Guide, a chart that allows you to select plants for your garden on the basis of particular features and growing conditions such as size, colour of flowers, specific uses, soil type, etc."
"The Macquarie Dictionary of Trees and Shrubs has been written specially for Australian conditions. It is the ideal reference for the Australian gardener looking to learn about everything from the Eucalyptus rubida to the Magnolia campbellii to the Rhododendron (azalea)."
New Botany Books
Functional plant ecology
Pugnaire, Francisco I., QK901 .H295 2007
“Following in the footsteps of the successful first edition, Functional Plant Ecology, Second Edition remains the most authoritative resource in this multidisciplinary field. Extensively revised and updated, this book investigates plant structure and behavior across the ecological spectrum. It features the ecology and evolution of plant crowns and addresses approaches to generalization in functional plant ecology, including the species-sampling problem, plant ecology strategy schemes, and phylogeny. The book follows a bottom-up approach, from the more specific, detailed studies focusing on plant organs to the broadest ecosystem approaches. It offers the latest findings and research breakthroughs in plant ecology, as well as consideration of classic topics in environmental science and ecology. A wide-ranging compendium, the book investigates plant structure and behavior across the ecological spectrum, from the leaf to the ecosystem levels.”
Pollen: the hidden sexuality of flowers
Kesseler, Rob, QK658 .K47 2006 Oversize - 2nd floor - West side
“Pollen, the minute building block of plant life, contain firmaments of otherworldly beauty. Through the marvel of scanning electron photomicroscopy, and in collaboration with two renowned experts, visual artist Kesseler unveils the delicate artistry and vibrant wizardry of this horticultural workhorses in an incandescent blend of exacting science and extraordinary art. Carried by wind, water, birds, and bees, microscopic pollen grains embark on a remarkable journey to fertilize an awaiting plant. Harley writes of the evolution and diversity of pollen and the process of pollination with both the precision of an academic text and the poetry of a heartfelt homage. Whether interpreting the intricacies of symbiotic relationships or extolling the miracle of parthenogenesis, Harley patiently and precisely opens this hidden world to novices and serious students alike. Carol Haggas.” - From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
A natural history of conifers
Farjon, Aljos, QK494 .F36 2008
“Leading expert Aljos Farjon provides a broader perspective with this compelling narrative that observes conifers from the standpoint of the curious naturalist. It starts with the basic question of what conifers are and continues to explore their evolution, taxonomy, ecology, distribution, human uses, and issues of conservation. As the story unfolds many popular misconceptions are dispelled, such as the notion that all conifers have cones (untrue), and the extraordinary diversity of conifers begins to dawn as Farjon describes the diminutive creeping shrub Microcachrys tetragona, whose strange seed cones resemble raspberries, and the prehistoric-looking Araucaria meulleri.
The taxonomic diversity of conifers is huge and Farjon goes on to relate how, over the course of three 300 million years, these trees and shrubs have adapted to survive geological upheavals, climatic extremes, and formidable competition from flowering plants. Scarcely less remarkable is his explanation of how conifers, with only 627 species, grew to occupy every continent on earth ranging from the high latitudes to the tropics.”
Plant Evolution Timeline
"The Plant Evolution Timeline was developed by Nicola Peart and Ben Roberts as part of the UK's Ensemble: Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case Based Learning project, and created using a modified version of the open software from the MIT SIMILE/Timeplot project. It is a "cut-down version" of a tool used in teaching plant evolution at the University of Cambridge. The plant evolution time line is separated into two panels, an upper panel that plots seven abiotic (one biotic) factors and a lower panel that plots nine biotic factors that can be turned on and off in various combinations against geologic time.
Users can click on the geologic eras and periods, and the panel will zoom in on the plotted data in each panel for that particular time period. When clicking on the geologic era or period, the site also displays an illustration of the continental positions at that time. The Timeline integrates a variety of key information, and this is an excellent teaching graphic to correlate changes in abiotic and biotic factors through time. The simplicity and clarity with which the data are presented also make the site student- and user-friendly and make for a very clean and interactive graphic to use in the classroom. The one drawback of the data being plotted is that it does not present competing interpretations of a particular biotic or abiotic parameter; however, the graphic can be used to initiate these classroom discussions. This is a useful Web site for presenting integrated data to students on evolutionary change through time, and is an excellent instructional resource for teachers of grades 8-12 through upper-level undergraduate courses. Designed to work with Firefox 2.0." - M. S. Zavada, East Tennessee State University, from Choice Online
SCOPUS
Scopus indexes over 14,000 peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical, and social science literature (from over 4,000 international publishers). Abstracts go back to 1966. References go back to 1996. 100% coverage of Medline. A unique feature of this databaae is the "Cited By" feature, which offers the ability to determine (and track) the number of times a particular article/author has been cited and by whom.
Links to full-text when subscribed to by the Library; otherwise, offers citation information for Interlibrary Loan purposes.







