Surfin' the Internet for The Green Industry: plant societies

by Hans C. Groot, Ph.D.

Many of the plants that grace America's homes and gardens over the years have 'grown' their own loyal fan clubs organized to foster research on and promote their "favorites" and, in some cases, prevent them from extinction. A few of these plant societies are local in terms of geographic coverage but others have members throughout the United States and occasionally an international membership.

One activity many of these plant societies carry out is to gather experiences from their members which then are collated into very useful growing tips for others interested in growing these plants. Usually, you can find this information on each society's website.

One of the sites we checked out in more detail was that of the American Gloxinia and Gesneriad Society (AGGS) [http://www.aggs.org/]. The site lists membership benefits and provides information on how to join the group. It includes information on local chapters, meetings, and the group's convention, and lets you order AGGS publications on line. The site recommends a list of reference books and provides information on how to propagate gloxinias and gesneriads.

Also included in the site are bulletin boards where you can raise questions or post information about your experience in growing the plants. For those interested in growing the plants, the site also includes a "swap shop" for seeds and cuttings. If you still need more information, there is also a link to other websites with information about gesneriads.

The gesneriad family has over 2,500 species and one of the best known members, the African Violet has its own website [http://www.avsa.org/].

The American Bamboo Society [http://www.bamboo.org/abs/] is another example. ABS was organized in 1979 and currently claims some 1,100 members in 39 countries. Like the AGGS site, ABS' website has membership information, general information about bamboo, and a species source list.

The California Native Plant Society [http://www.cnps.org/] is an example of a statewide non-profit organization of amateurs and professionals with a common interest in California's native plants, those that grew in California prior to European contact; many states have their own native plant societies. Aside from the usual membership information, the CNPS website has information about such activities as the monitoring projects that encourage laymen and botanists to interact -- native plant enthusiasts help with the monitoring while learning plants and techniques from an expert.

The site has information on legislation affecting native plants and an extensive CNPS document archive you can access and download (in either html or pdf format - html is the coding used for internet pages and pdf is a special format that allows you to download and print internet pages without losing any of the original formatting). You also can sign up for a CNPS email list that will alert you to events that affect the state native plants, view information on native plant sales by the organization's chapters, visit the bookstore, and view a photo gallery.

One of the more exotic sounding sites we visited for this column was that of the International Carnivorous Plant Society [http://www.carnivorousplants.org/]. The site has photographs, membership information, links to a carnivorous plant database, and to the organization's newsletter where you can search the index for previously published articles.

There are 60+ plant societies listed on the PCN weblinks page. If the plant you are interested in is not listed, you can try one of the internet search engines, such as Yahoo [http://www.yahoo.com], to see if there is a society for your plant of choice - just type in the name of the plant in the space provided for "searching" on the Yahoo site.