Field Museum of Natural History

This proposal requests support to create vPlantsPlus , an expansion of the current vPlants, that was developed from an earlier NLG. vPlants is a collaborative on-line herbarium for the greater Chicago region that translates information contained on nearly 90,000 herbarium specimens into digital information that is easily and globally accessed, browsed, and searched. vPlantsPlus expands upon this in three areas: 1.) To enhance the content and accessibility of the program to accommodate a growing audience through the addition of more broadly usable "[web] pages". 2.) Expand the breadth of vPlants to include fungi. 3.) Add new partners by collaborating with institutions that house large collections of Chicago area plants as well as educational initiatives that offer additional technical expertise. vPlantsPlus will build upon vPlants strong foundation to improve functionality, teach, and taxonomic breadth. vPlants was created to be both highly adaptable and readily expandable. vPlantsPlus represents the logical progression of this proven and innovative design