Central Yukon Species Inventory Project

CYSIP: Botany

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Welcome To CYSIP: Botany

Welcome!

This website is an e-flora for Central Yukon. It is part of a project called Central Yukon Species Inventory Project or CYSIP. The larger CYSIP includes Lichens, Birds, Mammals, and Fungi as well. The goal of CYSIP is to document all the species endemic (growing wild) to Central Yukon. To learn more about CYSIP or about how you can contribute visit the CYSIP Page.

Site Overview:

Once complete (if ever complete) each species of plant endemic to Central Yukon will have a page of its own in this site. Each species page will (attempt to) include:

  • Photos and Illustrations of the plants and their parts in various stages of thier life cylces
  • Range Maps of both Global Range and Central Yukon Sites where the plants have been found
  • Descriptions of the plants and thier parts, as well as descriptions of similar-looking plants that could be confusing
  • Biology, including physiology, seasonal cycle, and life cycle information
  • Ecology, including animal uses and habitat
  • Human Uses: traditional and modern uses, local first nation uses, other cultures uses, including food, medicine, folklore, and industrial uses

This site also includes Family Pages with information in similar categories as the Species Pages but relevent to the whole Family.

Site as an introduction to Plant Biology:

Many biological concepts are discussed on the the Plant Kingdom Page and the Division Pages of the site. These include topics such as vascular systems on the Traecheophyta (Vascular Plants Division) Page, and seeds on the Spematophyta (Seed Plants Division) Page, et cetera.


Site Tools and Navigation

Site Featrures and Tools

Illustrated Glossary

This site does use botanical jargon. The first time a botanical term is used on a page or in a section of a page, the botanical terms will be followed by a short definition. As well, most botanical terms link to thier full definition in the illustrated glossary, these are in underlined red type and will open up a pop-up-window to the relevent glossary definition and illustration.

2 Sets of Plant Identification Keys

Keys are tools to help a person identify a plant. The Illustrated Keys show images of particular species or traits within groups. This key system is good for beginners and there is no botanical jargon. The Dichotomous Keys are the traditional keys used by botanists. This system is usually more acurate but slower and involves technical jargon.

Larger Images

Most of the Images in this site can be made larger for closer examination by clicking on them.

Navigating the Site:

We have attempted to make this fairly large site easy to navigate by including many ways to get to most pages.

The heart of this website is the Species Pages. Species Pages are organized taxonomically along Family Lines and in Divisions.

There are 5 ways to find a particular Species Page:
  1. If you know the Species Page you want to visit you can find it by name:
  2. Latin/Scientific Name Index
  3. Common/English Name Index
  4. Species Index by Families. (Doubles as the Site Map)
  5. Note: Links to all indexes can be found can be found in the menu at the top of each page.
  6. If you have a plant you wish to identify, this site has 2 distinct sets of Keys:
  7. The Illustrated Keys show photos or line drawings of particular species or traits within groups. This key system is good for beginners and there is no botanical jargon..
  8. The Dichotomous Keys are the traditional keys used by botanists. This system is usually more acurate but slower and involves technical jargon.
  9. Note: The Keys are found on the Division and Family Pages, with Master Keys on the
    Plant Kingdom Page.

Botany: The Study of Plants

Botany or Plant Biology is the study of the Plant Kingdom. In Central Yukon the Plant Kingdom includes more than 600 species of vascular plants and an undocumented number of non-vascular plants (maybe about 200 sps?). These species provide a lot of material for a botanist to study. There is however a lot more to plants than just identifying "Who they are". The study of plants also includes:

  • Ethnobotany: The study of humans and plants. How can this plant be used?
  • Ecology: The study of biological comunities. How does this plant fit in?
  • Physiology: The study of structure and function. How does this plant work?
  • Taxonomy: The study of lineage. Who is related to who?
  • Genetics, Biochemistry, and many more areas of study add to our understanding of plants.

To start learning about plants visit the Plant Kingdom Page.

On this site we have attempted to include as much infomation on each species of plant as we could find. We will continue to add information to the pages as we discover it. We welcome contributions. If you have knowledge about a plant that we do not, please fill us in by visiting the CYSIP: Contributions Page.

What is New

Species Count:

Number of species with pages: 205 (total= 800+ approx)

Number of families with pages: 43 (total= 90 approx)


What's New:

April2011

Ranunculaceae (Crowfoot Family) page and 17 of 30 species pages have been added.

Time for work, so this will be the last addition until next autumn.

Feb2011

Schophulareaceae (Figwort Family) page and all 17 species added to the database.

Jan2011

Finished all 29 species for the Rosaceae (Rose Family).

Dec2010 2nd update

Added the missing Salix (Willow) species to the database. There are now pages for all 23 Willows of Central Yukon. Salicaceae (Willow Family).

Dec2010

Added some small families and their species pages; Valerianaceae (Valerian Family), Rubiaceae (Madder Family), Lentibulariaceae (Bladderwort Family).

Nov2010

Another winter in here and so is more content for the site. Campanulaceae (Bluebell Family) and Pyrolaceae (Wintergreen Family)

Feb2010 2nd update

Polemoniaceae (Phlox Family) and all 6 species of this family have been added.

Feb2010

6 new species each in their own single species families have been added.

The 2 species family Plantaginaceae (Plantain Family) has also been added

Jan2010 3rd update

Added the last of the fern and horsetail species. 6 more species total. 2 of them in new families.

This site now has pages for all the ferns and fern allies found in Central Yukon!

There are now 100 species pages on this site!

Jan2010 2nd update

The shrub families Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle) Cornaceae (Dogwood) and Elaeagnaceae (Oleaster) have been added.

Each of the above families has 2 species. Pages for the species have also been added.

Our one poisonous berry species in Central Yukon has been added. It is Actaea rubra (Red Baneberry).

The mission to get all the berry and shrub species (minus a few willows) added to the database has now been completed!

Jan2010

All 15 species of Ericaceae (Heath Family) plus the family page have all been added.

2 heath-like species each in its own family, have also been added. They are Empetrum nigrum (Crowberry) and Diapensia lapponica (Lapland Diapensia)

Dec2009 3rd update

All 9 shrub or berry species in the Rosaceae have been added to the datebase.

Dec2009 2nd update

I am concentrating my efforts on getting pages made for all the shrub species and the berry species in our region.

5 Salix (Willow) species pages out of 22 have been added.

All 5 Ribes (Currant) species pages have been added.

Family pages for Saxifragaceae and Rosaceae have been created

Dec2009

13 species pages have been added in the Orchidaceae (Orchid Family) and the Betulaceae (Birch Family).

Nov2009

Many new species pages have been added to the follwing families: Aspidiaceae (Fern Family), Pinaceae (Pine Family), Cupressaceae (Juniper Family), Our 2 poplar species in the Salicaceae (Willow Family) have been added, As well as some species from single species families such as Calla palustris (Wild Calla), Typha latifolia (Cattail), Cryptogramma stelleri (Rock Brake).

You may notice there is now a species and family pages counter at the top of the "What is New" section of this page.

Behind the scene all the species information has been put into a MySQL Database. This will, in the future, make the infomation much more usefull and will allow for such things as search tools and smart forms.

Mar 2009

New Family Pages for Orchidaceae (Orchid Family) Betulaceae (Birch Family) and Salicaceae (Willow Family).

A 'Division Pages' options has been added to the navigation bar at the top of each page to assist in easier site navigation.

Feb 2009

No new species info or pages. The species info will be stored in a database. This will allow for handy search tools and other neet things. We are working on structuring the database and its coresponding programs. We will not be able to add species content until this is complete.

In the mean time we have added much biology information on the division and family pages. There are new pages for the Pinaceae (Pine Family) and Cupressaceae (Cypress Family).

Yes we are aware of our terrible spelling problems. We are slowly correcting spelling and grammar mistakes. Please continue to let us know when we have made a mistake. Nothing is to "nit picky".

Many links and Images are still addressed to content which does not yet exist. So they may appear broken or missing for a while longer yet.

Enjoy what there is and please send feedback CYSIP@dempstercountry.ca

Jan 2009

Everything!

Due to the changing nature of Botany, this site will always be a work in progress.

Pages will continue to be added as they are created and content will be updated. All new additions will be posted here in the "What is New" box on the Home Page.

The "Species Index Pages", "Glossary" and "References" pages are all working. Content will be added to these pasges as the site expands and these additions will not be noted in the What's New Box as it can be asumed that when a new page is created or a new term used, it will be listed.

As of right now the content is sparse, limited to Pteridophyta (spore-bearing vascular plants) Division and Liliaceae (the Lily Family).

Please brouse what content there is on the site. If there are any comments or constructive critisisms please let us know (the sooner the better before I post too much). Please send emails to: CYSIP@dempstercountry.ca



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