Plant and Soil Sciences

A Web database of educational resources in plant and soil sciences from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, including lessons, animations, and a glossary. You can explore by topics and subtopics, or you can search the entire database by keyword. Content is briefly described for each entry, including student level.

This page is part of the “Virtual Library” Series, very good browsing guides to specific subject areas within the Internet. This guide includes a list of Internet resources by topic; an extensive directory to a large archive of biological newsgroups and journal contents pages; links to other journals, biological software, and finding aids; and an extensive alphabetical listing of organizational sites, both academic and commercial.

"Maize resources for students, producers, and specialists.” Includes general and technical information as well as a section on genes and germplasm and a search engine. From Iowa State University.

The main site of the American Phytopathological Society, with resources for both members and interested visitors. Includes news, meetings, a list of online resources, directories and career information, as well as a link to their journals and publications. Every month a linked feature article is highlighted.

A collaborative project between the National Park Service and the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. The Atlas provides information about non-native plant species that invade natural areas, excluding agricultural and other developed lands.

List of range and pasture plants with accompanying illustrations. Over 600 species are divided into sections covering grasses & grasslike plants, forbs, and woody plants. Section listings are by common or scientific name as well as by taxonimic groups and each image is accompanied by information on family, season, origin, height, and flowering characteristics.

A page of information from several digital collections and databases, featuring “Images”, formerly the Plant Dictionary, which is a series of images, short descriptions and links to extensive information for each of 600 ornamental plants. Self-described as “an indexed system of teaching resources for the discipline of Horticulture and Crop Science,” it provides lists by common and scientific name, by ornamental feature and by category of plant.

Maintained by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a part of the USDA, the PLANTS (Plant List of Attributes, Names, Taxonomy, and Symbols) Database provides standardized information about vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories.

The Council is a group of the major independent horticultural libraries in the U.S. plus a few institutions from overseas. Look under Membership for a list of links to member library Web sites and to their catalogs, when applicable. Over 60 libraries are listed, including those for two local institutions, the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

This Internet Glossary of Soil Science Terms is one of several features of the site from this well-known organization. A menu bar allows access to the association’s newsletter, calendar, membership information, and publications, including journal tables of contents.

NRCS helps America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners conserve the nation’s soil, water, air and other natural resources. All programs are voluntary and offer science-based solutions that benefit both the landowner and the environment.

Directory and information site on the bio-chemo-geologic zone from the outer envelope of vegetation down to the lower limits of groundwater, developed “by a consortium of researchers and educators drawn from the geosciences, microbiology, ecology, soil science, and engineering to investigate the physical, chemical and biological processes shaping and transforming Earth’s outermost thin veneer.”

Includes a link to the Web Soil Survey, which allows viewing large and small areas of the U.S. for soil information.

Comprehensive list of virology research and data sites as well as links to servers covering specific viruses. Includes both animal and plant viruses and sections on educational resources and news.

From the Delaware Cooperative Extension Office, a group of spreadsheet and pdf files which represent the required inputs and costs to produce particular crops in Delaware. Includes both agronomic and vegetable crops.

Helping people understand soils and plants. Resources from the UDSA's Natural Resources Conservation Services

Information to help understand soils and in conducting land-use decision making.

Free and searchable database with a wealth of information on 13,345 native plants.

Compiled by Jen Kirk, Government Information Librarian at Utah State University, and Helen F. Smith, Agricultural Sciences Librarian at Pennsylvania State University