Released April 24, 2009
CORVALLIS, Ore. – If you'd like to plant a new shrub in your front yard or perennials along your back fence, but don't know what plants to choose, you can find help on an Oregon State University Web site.
Pat Breen, an OSU professor emeritus of horticulture, created the site 10 years ago to help his students learn to identify plants. He's retired now but continues to spend two or three hours every day updating the plant photos and information.
"Landscape Plants: Images, Identification and Information" describes and illustrates more than 900 plants with about 3,500 images, enough of each plant to leave no doubt about its appearance. Breen took about 99 percent of the photos. http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/
Both common names and Latin names are listed. Plants with their names in green are native to Oregon, or have become naturalized in the state, according to Breen. In addition to photos of plant habitats, leaves, flowers, fruit and bark, you'll find helpful facts such as how much sunlight is needed, plant hardiness and number of years to mature.
"My initial aim was for students to use the site to help in plant identification," Breen said. "I'd always walk the class around campus to see actual plants, but having the site to reference before and after made it more likely that students would remember and be able to identify them."
Breen's Web site is a work in progress; thousands of plants are on the market and hundreds more are introduced each year. Most of the plants on the site are woody trees and shrubs in the first three of four volumes. The fourth volume features herbaceous annuals and perennials. Breen has recently added a search feature for broad-leafed woody plants, and conifers (narrow leaf) will be added later this year.
Heavily used by students at OSU and other universities across the country, the Web site gets about 7,000 visits a day during the spring and fall. The site also contains a glossary of technical terms.
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http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/story.php?S_No=1084&storyType=garden
