Pakistan Gardening Forum

ASA everyone,

Wouldn't it be nice if we have an illustrated list of garden plants of Pakistan here that we can consult anytime? I am presenting a Wikipedia like idea to get your valuable feedback. As we know Wikipedia is mainly based on volunteers and it is open to editing by everyone. Yet its accuracy is comparable to established encylopedias because it is a self correcting database. For e.g. if A writes something which may have factual errors, B corrects it.

It is long been my dream to have an illustrated list of Pakistani Garden Plants. What if we make an editable online list of only Pakistani plants in this forum? All we have to do is to add the names and pictures of the plants we know of along with common name/ Urdu/ local names. I used to keep a Word file for my own reference which is very simple, plant's name which was new to me at one time and it's picture (mainly from the internet).

Currently, it is a modest list of names i.e. ~ 50 so far, but if we upload it here and keep it open for editing by members, then each member can contribute at his/her own convenience. Secondly even if 20 of our active contributors add 10 plants they know of, we will have at once 200 additional plants in that list...and this will grow with time. So there will be no burden of time on anyone!

We don't need to take photographs of plants that we add but we can use google images and use their link as a reference.

Every now and then we get an identification questions. What we can do is to archive that picture in the list along with correct identification, if someone finds a mistake then that member can correct it .

A snap shot of my Word file is attached for your perusal. Please don't say that we don't have time- it will be the most invalid excuse because hobbies and passions carve out time themselves out of very busy schedules. All we need is a determination. As the famous saying goes Where there is a will, there is a way :-)

Regards,

Farooq

Great idea farooq sb, we can even add non indigenous plants as well that can grow here in Pakistan and can be safely introduced in our climate.

Dear Farooq

Hats off to you for dropping this idea. I am sure we will all make an effort to make it most profound list with the passage of time and that will be used as a best reference for Pakistani Garden Plants.

Farooq Bhai.....the team is already thinking on these lines but the difficulties arising are of multiple nature. I think you can help us device this List.

Problems faced:-
Costly Database program(if we get it tailored made from a specialist) as well as high cost of hosting this database.
Format of this list, so that its in some order(alphabetical may be), and how to go about displaying it as "Forum"/phpbb scripts offer very limited tools.
Extreme dedication/input from members for making/updating this database. (Time/effort constraints)
Botanical expertise for proof vetting data as we are all hobbyist.
If we keep it open for editing by all members, that will require special permissions for each member( i wonder if that is possible)

farhan137 wrote:Farooq Bhai.....the team is already thinking on these lines but the difficulties arising are of multiple nature. I think you can help us device this List.

Problems faced:-
Costly Database program(if we get it tailored made from a specialist) as well as high cost of hosting this database.
Format of this list, so that its in some order(alphabetical may be), and how to go about displaying it as "Forum"/phpbb scripts offer very limited tools.
Extreme dedication/input from members for making/updating this database. (Time/effort constraints)
Botanical expertise for proof vetting data as we are all hobbyist.

Glad to know Farhan if the team has the same line of thinking. I think other readers also think about the idea positively. I can guess the technical challenges thats why I suggested, lets keep it simple to begin with. As we say learn to walk before learning to run. Although our aim is ambitious but can we have humble beginnings? Something as simple as a Word file. An interested contributor can download the file, edit it by adding the plants & pictures and upload it again ... whenever they wish.

I am not concerned about extreme dedication because there will be no time burden on anyone (no deadlines) and it will be 100% voluntary. The idea of adding pictures from Google images was a visual step of verfification. For example if I add a name and get the identical plant on google images then 99% chances are there that the scientific name is correct. I am willing to maintain/ clean the Word file as long as "interested" contributors submit pictures with names.

Regards,
Farooq

@Farooq Sb.....You have full liberty as any other member to go ahead with your suggestion and put it in black & white in whatever way you have envisaged. Looking forward to initiation of Illustrated list project from your side. We would be grateful and render our services in all possible manners.

On the other hand Mirafzalkhan is working very diligently on creating some sort of database for the above mentioned project remaining within the frame work of Forum/phpBB script.

I would suggest that the data should be in the form that it can be categorized without any extra effort. E.g. If i add an entry for a plant then i should be able to mention that it is a fragrant plant, its type is creeper and so on. So later on if we try to get a list of fragrant plants of pakistan then we do not have to search for each entry. It is the same concept of labels in blogger blogs E.g. http://www.lahoregardening.com/search/label/butterfly will fetch all post having butterfly in the label. This is also the way Flowers of india has done that. Same data but different extraction. I think they have used JAlbum http://jalbum.net/en/ which seems good and not very expensive.

One more thing, this list will grow i have no doubt about it. it will reach hundreds and then even more. We should be able to present this data in a separate website. If we launch flowers of pakistan dot com then we should be able to put same data on that website with minimal effort.

@Khabbab.....how about we sponsor a new website. But again what are the possibilities of tailored made database ?

farhan137 wrote:@Khabbab.....how about we sponsor a new website. But again what are the possibilities of tailored made database ?

We can go for new website, just my opinion though. I have asked database question on forum of Jalbum, lets c what response i get. But there are many other solutions similar to jAlbum, they need to be investigated.

Nice idea.