Research assistance required...

[Zev]

We would like to know how user friendly you think the following sites are for plant identification.

1- http://www.nzpcn.org.nz

2 - http://dataversity.org.nz

3 - http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz

4 - http://www.niwa.co.nz

or any plant identification site you may know of (but not ours!)

The challenge is:

You have just found these two plants, and would like to know what they are, and if you are allowed to put them in your tank or pond...

Exhibit a:

Exhibit b:

Please post your findings below - DO NOT NAME THE PLANTS in your findings, but answer the questions below:

For each plant, a & b

Could you find the name of your plant? Yes/No

On which sites did you find this information? 1 - 4, or name of other site you found it on

How long approximately did it take you to find the name of the plants?

General observations about the user friendliness of each site.

Thanks!

[alanmin4304]

I new what the first plant was and the name. Also new the second plant but had forgotten the name. Didn't find any of the nominated sites useful at all. Went to plantgeek--plant guide--plant type and found them straight away. Unfortunatey it did not tell me they were both unwanted organisms.

[amtiskaw]

I tried the first site. I thought I'd try the Threats button in the quick search area (seemed like an obvious place to start) and it came up with a list of animals, the first being Mynas. Clicking thru to that, under threats to plants it shows "Mynas prey on feral pigeon eggs and nestlings, Silver and Southern Black-backed or Kelp Gulls, and on those of the small native and introduced passerines."

Seems a bit :smot:

Ahh, I see - if you hover over Threats on the menu it shows a drop down for Exotic Plants, etc - maybe the quick search should differentiate too? Regardless, the info for the Myna's threats to plants doesn't mention any plants. Didn't go any further.

The Dataversity site was no use at all, ditto for NIWA. I clicked about for a few minutes but couldn't find anything to help ID the plants. Dataversity seemed very dry and academic/organisational. NIWA was all over the place - poor structure in the layout.

The Biosecurity site seemed the most useful. I clicked on Pests and Diseases on the main menu, then

selected Plants on the left, then clicked the Pests and Diseases link, and selected marine and fresh water plants from the drop-down. Easily spotted the first plant (which I knew already) and had to click thru a couple to see bigger pictures to ID the second one (I think) - It'd be nice if a bigger pic came up when you hover over the small ones. On the info there, I'd say both are banned. Took about 2 minutes.

Just my 2c worth, YMMV, etc...

[shell]

I found it difficult to find the plants on all sites. And wasn't able to find both plants on any one site.

Plantgeek and aquaticplantcentral have databases that are easier to use - maybe we need a NZ version?

The first two websites were pretty useless.

NIWA and the biosecurity website had the best and easiest to find info. Took way too long to be able to identify the plants and find out if they are banned.

[Zev]

Any one else willing to give this a go?

[Adrienne]

Okay - The first look at each of the sites put me off. Too complex to know where to start. This is from someone who has no real knowledge about aquatic plants at all.

[Neon]

1. I found the first plant but that was only because I knew what it was. It didn't have photos, which would have been helpful

2. was no good at all

3. biosecurity was ok, but took a while to find. I've used this site before so knew what to look for

4. I found the niwa site hard to search on. It's quite an academic site and I didn't find it very user friendly. Though the guides on "good" and "bad" aquarium plants are good.

This is my favourite site for identifying aquatic plant pests:

http://www.arc.govt.nz/environment/biosecurity/search-for-plants/index.cfm?6379FDBB-14C2-3D2D-B92F-C9F85E93F9A0&tag=1