Solanaceae Source

A global taxonomic resource for the nightshade family

PBI Solanum: A worldwide treatment

We began this journey with the on-line monograph of all species in the mega-diverse genus Solanum. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Solanum project as part of the Planetary Biodiversity Inventories (PBI) mission.

In 2011 we added the names for all members of the family to the resource with the collaboration of the International Plant Names Index (IPNI), and are working through these with the help of the Solanaceae community worldwide. This increases the coverage to all 90+ genera of the family and will contribute to diverse projects such as the World Flora On-Line that is contributing the the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. The Solanaceae Source BRAHMS database serves data on names and specimens for the website and is worked on continuously.The Solanaceae Source web site is one of the products of a five year project: Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (PBI) Solanum: A worldwide treatment.

The aim of the project was to produce a worldwide taxonomic monograph of the species of the plant genus Solanum, organised by a robust phylogenetic framework.

The project began in January 2004 and was just one of four inventories funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the first round of funding for the PBI Initiative.

Grant number: DEB-0316614

The project was made possible through collaborations between Solanaceae specialists worldwide, with principal investigators from:

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith