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Adding Species To Your List

The first thing you’ll need to do before you begin managing your seed collections in Terraware, including seed banking activities, is to populate your species list with all of the plant species you’ll be working with.

You can add species to your species list when you decide to start working with new species. You can add species in more than one way.

 

Bulk Importing A Species List

When you first start using Terraware, you may have a long list of species you’ve been working with previously. If you have been keeping track of this elsewhere, you can easily import the list into Terraware using a .CSV file (which can be created, edited and deleted in any spreadsheet program of your choice, for example Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers).

To bulk import from a CSV:

    1. First, you will need to make sure your CSV file is formatted with the correct column names and values. You can find a blank template that you can fill out by navigating to the Species page in Terraware, clicking on the three dots icon at the upper left of the screen, clicking Import, and then clicking on the link to download the CSV. You can then open it in your spreadsheet program of choice. The only required column is the scientific name. After you’ve filled the sheet out, make sure that you export it as a CSV.
      1. Acceptable values for growth form: tree, shrub, forb, graminoid, fern.
      2. Acceptable values for endangered and rare: Yes or No, Y or N, or True or False
      3. Acceptable values for seed storage behavior: orthodox, recalcitrant, intermediate, or unknown.
      4. The only required column is the scientific name. Please enter it in the form of genus + species. The family name will be auto populated for you when you upload the spreadsheet if we find the scientific name in the GBIF database. We do encourage you to be as thorough as possible, as this will help you easily sort your seed collection by things like conservation status, and easily reference seed storage behavior for different species later.
    2. When your CSV is ready, go into Terraware and click on Species in the left navigation. Click the Import Species button, where you’ll be prompted to upload your CSV.
    3. Your CSV will be uploaded. If there are any issues with it that prevent it from being read, you’ll be asked to correct them and re-upload.
    4. You’ll next be asked if you want to check your database. This will search for things like duplicate species and misspelled scientific names. If any are found, you’ll be notified.
    5. When everything is done, you’ll be able to see your species list in Terraware.
    6. If any issues like misspelled scientific names were found, you’ll see an exclamation point next to those species in the list. Click on the exclamation point, and information about the warning, including suggestions to fix it where relevant, will appear. 

Adding Species Individually

You can also add species individually at any time if you are a manager or admin. This is easier than uploading a CSV when you are adding just a few species. It will not overwrite anything you have previously uploaded.

To add a species:

      1. Navigate to Species in the left hand navigation and click on the “Add Species” button on the top right of the screen. 
      2. Enter in the scientific name of the species
        1. We consider the scientific name of the species to be the genus + species name.
        2. While you type this in, we search the GBIF database for species that match what you are typing. If we don’t find a match, don’t worry! You can still enter in that scientific name. 
        3. The scientific name is the only required field to create a species, though we recommend that you fill out as much information as you can! 
      3. Enter in any of the following fields if you know them (they are optional).
        1. Common name: The name an organism is known by to the general public, rather than its scientific name.
        2. Family: The scientific name of the plant family currently accepted in the botanical literature. This will be pre-populated if we find your scientific name in the GBIF database
        3. Conservation Status: A species' risk of extinction, usually a legal designation or a Red List assessment.
        4. Growth Form: A structural category consisting of individuals or species of the same general habit of growth but not necessarily related.
        5. Seed Storage Behavior: The capacity of seeds to survive desiccation and temperatures to levels necessary for ex site (off site) storage.
      4. Click Save to add your species to your species list.

Checking Species Data

You can run a database check at any time to compare your species list information to what’s stored in the GBIF Database. This will flag entries if the scientific name of your species is spelled wrong, or is missing from the database.

To check species data:

        1. Click on the three dots icon at the top right of the page. Click the “Check Data” button from the options. 
        2. If a species is flagged after a data check, there will be a yellow caution icon next to the species name. If you click on that icon, you can see what the issue with the current name is and our suggested fix. You can either:

          1. Cancel the suggestion: This will leave the caution icon next to the species name so you can come back to it later, and will not change the name you have currently.

          2. Ignore the suggestion: This will remove the caution icon from the species and will not change the name you have currently.
          3. Accept the suggestion: If you accept the suggestion, the name of that species will update to the suggested name. This change will be reflected across Terraware in the seed accessions, nursery seedlings, and plants dashboard.

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