HORTICULTURAL DATA In praise of Persephone

Penny Ross, David Ross and Doug Smith report on a new system for recording information about the Heritage National Plant Collections

uring their tenure, their intentions. They are asked National Plant Collection whether they wish to leave it to Plant Dholders amass an enormous Heritage and/or another individual amount of information about the or organisation. they curate. Such information The project was started in 2013 is not only interesting and useful and was inspired by one of us (David Accession data from a National Plant Collection of today, but may also outlive both Ross, joint NPC holder of Primula auricula held by Robin & Annabel Graham. the collection holder and even their coccinea ). His Green accessions are alive, red ones are dead, plants. Alas, such valuable data is aim was ‘to create a 21st century and accessions listed horizontally have been propagated from the left-hand one. often held in the minds and filing system for recording the NPCs’, but cabinets of collection holders, and without burdening the charity with indeed may ultimately be lost to runaway IT costs. The software was horticulture. programmed by a then postgraduate

Persephone screenshots by Penny Ross. Plant images by the NPC holders mentioned in the captions. The Persephone project, now computer science student, trialled in its fourth year at Plant Heritage, by collection holders in Devon and is helping to address these issues. Hampshire and, following some It aims to bring together the records modest further development, of National Plant Collection (NPC) offered to other NPC holders holders under one roof. around the country. Software Persephone is a bespoke online support continues to be made database. It can be accessed via a available by its developer on a secure login, on any internet-enabled voluntary basis. advice, anywhere in the world. At the time of writing, the data from Features of the database more than 120 NPCs and The bread and butter of Persephone prospective NPCs is stored on the is two data fields, Plants (Taxa) and system. It covers more than 16,000 Accessions. A plant record contains taxa and 25,000 accessions, with information that applies to every more being added month by month. accession of that plant, whereas From the outset users are asked to an accession record contains Accession data from a National Plant Collection consider what happens to their data information that applies only to of Sir Cedric Morris Iris held by Sarah Cook. when they are no longer able to look that specific accession. Where after their collection and record one accession is propagated from

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An accession record showing standard fields and images relating to a National Plant Collection ofScadoxus held by Jonathan Hutchinson. another, the relationship between of whom do not have a grounding Support for users the accessions is recorded so that in horticultural . Ease of use has been a guiding propagation history can be easily Customization, on the other hand, principle throughout the traced back to the original. allows collection holders a great deal development. There is on-screen There is a good balance between of flexibility to record what makes step-by-step help to guide the user, standardization and customization. sense for their collection. One along with an online help manual. Standardization ensures that all collection holder may wish to record Unused fields may be hidden from collection holders correctly record the history of their cultivars, while view using ‘drag and drop’ form plant names (taxa), accession another might want to record the editing, so allowing the user to select numbers, the date of acquisition natural distribution of their chosen only the fields they need, from two and source. Plant name formatting or . Images may be to up to 24 fields. The value of this is automatic and corrective. For added to the plant record, accession approach is perhaps reflected in the example, keying ‘cornus’ into the record or both. There is also scope growing number and age of users. genus field, ‘sericea’ into the species for setting up drop-down boxes Indeed, one of Persephone’s most field, ‘occidentalis’ into the (such as flowering season), check enthusiastic supporters, Margaret subspecies field and ‘sunshine’ into boxes (such as whether the plant McKendrick (NPC holder of the field will return Cornus needs labelling) and tables (such Japanese anemones), who is in her sericea subsp. occidentalis ‘Sunshine’, as for sequential measurement of ninth decade, regards Persephone while keying ‘cotoneaster’ into the girth, or information about DNA as ‘a gem’. genus field and ‘aff. amoenus’ into markers). Finally, there are file Support for Persephone users is the species field will return storage facilities, allowing the user provided by the volunteer members Cotoneaster aff. amoenus. This is to upload pretty much any file to of the Persephone admin team. It is important because, uniquely, Plant the collection, plant or accession not necessary for new users to enter Heritage’s NPC scheme involves not record – so creating a ‘one-stop shop’ their data manually. Instead, data only professional horticulturists, but for all information about a is transferred using Persephone’s also enthusiastic amateurs – many collection. import system which matches ➤

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Excerpt from an accession record showing comparative leaflet photographs for a Japanese Anemone cultivar, ‘Serenade’, in Margaret McKendrick’s collection.

data to standard or customized fields Data storage and sharing more accessible’, both key tenets of which are set up in advance using Another feature of Persephone is the charity’s conservation strategy. Persephone’s Note Management that while individual NPC holders Finally, Persephone is a fully live System. NPC holders typically see what appears to be their own system – information added by a supply their data in the form of personal database, all the data in NPC holder is immediately available spreadsheets or Word documents, Persephone is in fact held in a single online, so that reports and records or it comes from another database. database, and a permissions system are always as fully up to date as In a few cases data has been is used to control what any one possible. Data is backed up daily, imported by hand from paper or user sees. weekly and monthly to host servers card records, sometimes at the This is significant for two reasons. (and regularly by the Persephone request of a NPC holder of Firstly, all or part of the data held admin team) ensuring that valuable longstanding who is seeking to on Persephone may, with the information is not lost due to record photographs and other permission of the NPC holder, equipment failure. information for posterity. be easily shared with and viewed by other interested parties around the Work with the RHS world, facilitating discussion and Establishing the correct name comparison of plant information of a plant is imperative to its and images. Secondly, accession lists conservation. Persephone supports and other data made available to the this process by allowing a rapid plant conservation team at Plant ‘one click’ search of the plant name Heritage are held together, making against the online RHS Horticultural for more efficient management and Database. Any differences are allowing for records to be easily highlighted, errors on the NPC searched and analysed. ‘And this’, holder side are quickly resolved, and says Sarah Quarterman, chief any outstanding queries are referred executive of Plant Heritage, to the RHS or its Nomenclature ‘improves curation standards of and Taxonomy Advisory Group. collections and helps to make data The whole process is overseen by the Persephone admin team, ensuring an organized dialogue between the two organisations, which we hope will benefit both organisations and horticulture in general. This is no easy task however, with some collections containing upwards of 1,500 taxa which must be carefully worked through.

Workshops Excerpt from a plant record showing a customised drop-down box forLathyrus odoratus ‘Frances Kate’ As more collection holders join in Roger Parsons’s Lathyrus collection. Persephone we are working hard

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Excerpt from a plant record showing a customised field for recording cultivar history. The data is a 1968 article by Margery Fish lamenting confusion about the identity of ‘Mrs Hegarty’.

to provide training for users. Conclusion We use telephone training where For all Persephone’s early appropriate and, to the extent that achievements, it has considerable funds allow, workshops around the longer term development potential. country. Successful workshops The Persephone plant recording have also been held at Sparsholt system is available free of charge to Horticultural College in Hampshire, National Plant Collection holders, jointly for NPC holders and or prospective collection holders. horticultural students, who were Many of those who use the system paired for teaching. The students would like to see at least some of the helped collection holders with the data held on Persephone available IT aspects, while the NPC holders on the worldwide web. This would gave the students an insight into allow keen plantsmen and plant nomenclature and helped plantswomen, outside of Plant A specimen of Hesperantha coccinea ‘Mrs Hegarty’ given to the collection holders Penny & David Ross them to appreciate what is involved Heritage, access to the NPCs and by Mrs Hegarty’s great-grandsons, Adam Quinan in real-life plant curation. to the knowledge and enthusiasm and his brothers. of those who hold them. Meanwhile, any reader who would like to view specific collections on Persephone should contact the authors (see contact details below) to find out whether the desired records are on the system. We will then contact the NPC holder to find out whether they will grant permission to view.

Dr Penny Ross and David Ross hold a NPC of Hesperantha coccinea cultivars. Email: [email protected] Dr Doug Smith holds NPCs of Araliaceae (excluding Hedera), Podocarpaceae and Eucalyptus. Email: [email protected]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We acknowledge the support of Toby Ross for software development Data from Bill Squire’s National Plant Collection ofLachenalia species showing plant name formatting for a cultivar. and maintenance.

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