Because this database is very much a work in progress, many fields are empty for many taxa. Fields may be omitted for some taxa, particularly above the species level.

Taxon

The basic taxonomic entity being described. Taxonomic names consist of two parts. The first part is Latin and essentially consists of a one-word description of the taxon. For species, it's a two-word description because species are conventionally referred to by their "binomial", meaning one word for the genus that a species belongs to and one for the name of the species (its "specific epithet"). Sometimes the Latin name is helpful; Abies grandis, for example, literally translates as "grand fir". Other times, the Latin name merely commemorates a person; Pinus balfouriana, for example, is a pine named after a Scots horticulturist named Balfour. The second part of a taxonomic name is the name of the author(s) who first named that taxon. This is a critical part of the name because the description prepared by that author is literally the definitive description of the taxon. (I say "literally" because some of the old descriptions, especially from the 19th century or before, are notoriously vague.) The naming of taxa is governed by a strict set of rules, the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. The study of plant classification and its associated nomenclature is called plant systematics; a good library will have some texts on the subject, and a web search will likely turn up class notes from one or another university.

Just as a reminder, here's the hierarchy of taxa, with examples in parentheses:

Phylum (Pinophyta)
Class (Conopsida)
Order (Pinales)
Family (Pinaceae)
Genus (Pinus)
Species (balfouriana)
Variety (austrina).

(Note that names above the rank of genus are not italicized.)

What is a species?

For that matter, what is a genus, what is a family, what is an order? Every plant taxonomist has their own, personal views on these questions, and I expect that every one will also find scientific names on this website with which they disagree. There is disagreement even at the highest levels - how many phyla there are in the Gymnosperms - and the controversy proliferates down the chain from there.

Some of the disagreement occurs because one person is simply wrong and another is right. Here is an example. There used to be a widely known family of conifers called the Taxodiaceae, that included many famous species such as the redwood, Sequoia sempervirens. Some years ago it was conclusively shown that the Taxodiaceae are polyphyletic, meaning that they are not derived from a single common ancestor, and with that discovery the name "Taxodiaceae" had to be abandoned. It was also shown that the Taxodiaceae and the Cupressaceae taken together as a group do seem to have the same common ancestor, so all of the species formerly assigned to the Taxodiaceae are now in the Cupressaceae. Some people do not know this and continue to talk about the Taxodiaceae, and those people are wrong.

Very often, though, the disagreement between taxonomists occurs because of differing perceptions about what constitutes a species, as opposed to a variety or a genus. I think that Darwin said it best in the closing paragraphs of his "Origin of Species." It is important to understand that before Darwin, people thought that "species" were literally sacred -- that God had created each species, separate and unique, but had not created varieties or genera or any other taxonomic group; these were simply Man's interpretation of God's work. So, when Darwin said that God didn't create species (he simply accepted that long ago, God created Life [footnote]), he was stating a scientific heresy, and it took about twenty years for most scientists to come around to his way of thinking. After all this simmered down and he penned the final edition of "Origin of Species," he could look back and say

I agree utterly with Darwin, and so I suggest you simply accept that this Database may not divide species up in quite the same way that other authors do, but that it does try fairly to set forth the great diversity of Gymnosperm life, and that it tries to incorporate the latest scientific knowledge with regard to questions about the origins and commonality of the species treated herein.

Common Names

Vernacular names for a taxon, including non-English names where relevant. I try to include representations of names in non-Roman alphabets but this is often not feasible since, at present, HTML doesn't support character set changes within a file. Chinese names use Pinyin romanization.

Taxonomic Notes

A plant may have had a wide variety of scientific names over the years. These past names are called synonyms, and synonyms (abbreviated Syn.) are listed in this field. This field also describes controversial considerations affecting the classification of a species. For example, the Database assigns subspecific classifications to Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) based on information sufficiently new that not all distinct subspecies have yet been formally described. This is an example of the sort of taxonomic assessment I can present in the Database, that you will simply not see in any printed source, because it is an ephemeral situation; after a while, all relevant taxa will have been described and I will amend the Database accordingly. The Taxonomic Notes field also notes known instances of natural hybridization that may locally blur the distinction between two related species.

Description

This field describes what the plant actually looks like. In most cases, this includes the plant's stature, growth form, and characteristics of its foliage and reproductive organs. Unusual morphological features will also be mentioned.

Range

At a minimum, this lists the countries where a taxon is found. It may also describe climate, soils, major vegetation communities, disturbance regimes, or other ecological matters influencing the distribution of the taxon.

Big Tree

Most hard data in this field come from the National Register of Big Trees, listing the biggest known tree in the continental USA for all native or naturalized species. There are also some state big tree programs (e.g., the Washington Big Tree Program), and there are a variety of sources for big tree information outside the U.S. In some cases, this field presents approximate information because particular specimens are not known. I have separately provided a lot more information on tree sizes.

Oldest

Estimated maximum age for a species. If an age is known precisely, relevant details are provided. I have separately provided a lot more information on tree ages.

Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology is the study of tree rings. You'd be surprised at the variety of information that can be recovered from tree rings. If you enjoy surprises, try visiting The Ultimate Tree-Ring Web Pages. Information on the dendrochronological uses of a species is either from my personal recollection, or cited from the literature. "The literature" is cataloged on the online Bibliography of Dendrochronology.

Ethnobotany

Describes use of a taxon by humans. This may include historic use, by native or invasive peoples, as well as modern industrial uses.

Artificial hybrids are rarely included in the database. Neither are cultivars, and for that matter, horticulture is generally given short shrift. My interest in the gymnosperms is as an ecologist, so I prefer to deal with them as wildlife rather than cultivated plants. If you want to buy plants or seeds, or want to know how to grow these plants in your garden, then I suggest you consult gardening books or join a horticultural group such as the American Conifer Society. Incidentally, I also avoid any discussion of amateur medicine, a hot topic with regards to taxa such as Ephedra or Ginkgo.

Observations

This field tells of especially good places to find the taxon. Usually I try to describe where to find it in habitat, except for certain rare species that may be endangered by irresponsible collection. For these, I try to give examples of exceptionally good specimens in public collections (botanical gardens and arboreta, usually).

Remarks

This field is for anything of interest that doesn't fit into one of the preceding fields, such as derivation of the Latin name, or anecdotes.

Citations

This field has links to bibliographic citations. All specialized data in the database are cited. Most of the citations cannot be found without recourse to a major university library, although a few are online or available in the popular literature.

See Also

This field notes anything else that might be of interest and relevant to this species, but which I have not incorporated in the descriptions on the page. Usually anything in this field is definitely worth checking out. As the years go by and the level of knowledge about gymnoperms continues its exponential growth, it is ever more difficult for this website to contain even the most important information about every gymnosperm taxon. The website increasingly does not contain information about gymnosperms, but about where to find that information. In a sense, then, "See Also" is the most important field in the database.

Abbreviations

N, S, E, W, C = North, South, East, West, Central. Sometimes I use the abbreviations for states in the U.S. or provinces in Canada, but abbreviations are not used in the "Range" description in order to simplify the task of searching for all taxa within a particular geographic area. For that, just go to the home page and enter the names of countries (or states/provinces of the U.S., Mexico, Canada and China) in the search box.

Programming

The database started as a group of word processing documents, subsequently converted to HTML. I have tried to minimize using browser-specific features in an effort to make this material available to anyone. However, practically everything is embedded in a table, and there are a fair number of javascript routines used to call up windows containing graphics and citations. Some of the later versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer have problems with this. If that bothers you, I suggest you acquire a better, smaller, faster browser such as the Firefox browser.

I've tried to keep all text files to a maximum size limit of 50K and to avoid automatic loading of graphics larger than 10K. Optional graphics, accessed by clicking a thumbnail, may be as big as 110K. If you want higher-resolution imagery, I have hi-res versions of most of my photos available for commercial use.