Mountain plants grow on the web
The plants of the Sino-Himalayan Umbelliferae group are commonly known as the carrot or parsley family. These plants are medicinal herbs used by Sino-Himalayan communities, and are endangered due to their fragmented and shrinking forest habitat. The EU-funded UMBEL(opens in new window) (E-taxonomy of Sino-Himalayan Umbelliferae (Apiaceae): Diversity, phylogeny and species modelling through new web-based tools) initiative worked to address knowledge gaps on the diversity of Sino-Himalayan Umbelliferae. The aim was to develop a web-based system to shed light on the evolution of mountain Umbelliferae. UMBEL aggregated and curated existing plant data sets into a web-based virtual research environment. The goal was to create an open online knowledge base of Sino-Himalayan Umbelliferae. The researchers developed software to integrate the online taxonomy tools with state-of-the-art species distribution modelling (SDM) software. UMBEL conducted taxonomic, phylogenetic and SDM analyses using the knowledge base on four Sino-Himalayan alpine Umbelliferae genera to determine their distribution patterns. The research community and the public will benefit from open online access to authoritative academic knowledge on this endangered group of plants.
