The “Index” on USWildflowers.com is a list of species ordered by plant family.  Until now, it was purely a list of all species in the USWildflowers database.

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The Species Detail Page now provides an ability to more easily display related species.  The family name in the left side of the species heading has been changed to a hot-link to a page displaying a thumbnail of each species in the USWildflowers database in that family.  Previously the only way to get this list was to go to the Index page and click on the family hot-link in that (rather long) listing.  Also, the genus common name has been made a hot-link to a page listing thumbnails of all species contained in the USWildflowers database which are in that genus.

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Two small changes to the State Reference Page on USWildflowers.com.

1. Randomized the thumbnails representing each color of species for the queried state.  I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but never took the time to track down how to randomize the species selection query results.  Turned out to be a simple clause addition to the MySQL query.  I’m pleased with the results.  You get a different thumbnail for each color each time you hit the page.  I’ve also restricted those thumbnails to select only from the U.S. native plants. 
2. Added a Google Adsense advertisement at the bottom.  Sorry, folks, but these haven’t seemed to  be too intrusive, and I’m still trying to break even on that monthly web hosting fee.

My raised awareness of issues around native vs introduced plants resulting from my time on Twitter, as well as a decision to standardize my “group name” using the common name applied to the plant genus has led me to make a few recent minor changes to the USWildflowers website.  Hopefully these changes will be helpful to folks using the site.  Read on for details… Continue reading →