WE NEED YOU (and your $.02)!
(...)
>and how it cries out for organizing and editing
>to create a book or manual on everything we know about CP s in an efficient
>and easily retrieved form. This would be the ultimate FAQ resource for CPs.
Yes, indeed.
As a prodromus for such a book, the www page has been installed. The
information retrievable from this is until now rather incomplete, and any
contribution is most cordially invited.
In Germany, the local cp society GFP has started a monographing project
("Merkblaetter & Monographien", M&M) collecting available information on
cp. The work is organized in such a way that individual authors "adopt" one
or several species and try to find answers to a catalog of questions. After
some discussion of input formats and required information, a standardized
monograph framework was designed (available from Wolfram Diester or from
myself). Together with Rick and Barry, an English version of this framework
was created. I may send a copy of which to anyone interested.
Presently, about 20 species of various genera are dealt with by members of
the GFP. This work is co-ordinated and edited by Wolfram Diester, and I
have seen some really encouraging output already (monographs on _Drosera
rotundifolia_ and _Nepenthes khasiana_). The first printing (in German) is
scheduled for this year.
In future it is planned to translate the monographs (or better to write
them in English already) and to create a link between GFP and www. It would
of course be fine if further monographers could be recruited from any place
on this planet. I think already a few English monographs would be
sufficient to convince the (until now exclusively) German authors that
there is some need to "internationalize" the project.
> I must be out of my mind but I am willing to be the editor of such an
>undertaking IF THERE IS GENERAL SUPPORT for this activity.
As there are editors for the various activities already in operation
(GFP-M&M: Wolfram Diester, and www page: Rick Walker), it is not further
editors who are needed but contributors!
> I would assume
>that we would eventually maintain an electronic copy of this work in the
>archives. Ok Rick? It would be a living, growing, document and take a long
>time to compile.
This does exist already: the cp www home page.
So general structures for input are ready. What we need now is input. We
have an index, several pictures (Andreas und Joachim: wo sind Eure Bilder?
Die Welt braucht sie!), two keys, and an article on _Darlingtonia_
(Christine: could this perhaps be expanded into a monograph?) as a start,
but I think much more is possible.
I am going to publish a key for the whole genus _Drosera_ soon, and this
will be included in the web page afterwards.
Keys for _Sarraceniaceae_, _Genlisea_ and _Utricularia_ can be extracted
from literature and adapted to the needs of the web page. I think it is
possible to construct a preliminary key for (the rapidly growing genus)
_Pinguicula_. Perhaps someone in the IPSG would be interested?
A _Nepenthes_ monograph for Flora Malesiana is forthcoming, and some of the
information from which could be used, too (how about you, Matthew and
Martin?).
As the work is organized by taxa, and my nomenclatural synopsis is an index
to the files on the web page, authors do not need to bother with
nomenclature (if they want to, however, they are invited). For the time
being, M&M monographs do contain a short diagnosis of the taxon covered. As
soon as keys are available for all genera (and this should be possible
within one year, perhaps two for _Nepenthes_...), these diagnoses will of
course be superfluous.
Further ideas and especially INPUT are welcome!
Kind regards
Jan
PS: Do not ask what the web page could do for you, but ask yourself what
you can contribute to the web page!