Recent Developments in Kew's Grass Databases (Grassbase)

The World Grass Species databases have been in development at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for the past decade, and represent many years of effort archiving and collating data into a central resource. Twenty-first century agrostology requires that workers in the field embrace the new technologies that have become available with increasing computer power and literacy. The databases have been available on Kew's website for several years, but there has been limited internal use of this resource and almost no external use. There are two databases, one containing full grass nomenclature and the other containing descriptions for all grass species. The nomenclature database provides citation details for all grass names contained therein. It produces regional checklists, provides accepted names and synonyms for all species and a number of other search possibilities. Until recently, the descriptions database was only accessible through the software INTKEY, and required considerable computer literacy to access. These databases are in the process of being integrated, upgraded and made web accessible. The current versions have involved an almost complete redevelopment of the descriptions databases. Species descriptions have been generated and made available through the Kew website for all 10,916 accepted species, and considerable documentation has also been made available. The major changes implemented in the nomenclature database are the provision of a link to these descriptions and species distribution from the 'search for synonyms' and regional and generic checklist queries. This provides the beginnings of a full World Grass Flora. Current facilities, as well as future plans for these databases, their integration, and scope for collaboration are discussed.