Major update of MaltaWildPlants with 1000+ species listed!

Post by **MWP admin** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:14 pm

The long awaited update of MaltaWildPlants.com is finally launched online. After several months of hard work (starting about 1 year ago), Maltawildplants.com now features the following:

1025 plant species listed. (100s more to come!!)
652 species illustrated by 3-10 photos each. (100s more to come!!)
5000+ photos online !!! (growing to 7000!)
Totally redesigned code structure (PHP).
All data is database driven by MySQL.
A redesigned botanical index (split over 25 pages!)
A new Index of Plant Families sorted according their evolution.
A Fauna page with more than 100 species. (100s more to come!!)
A new Upload page to input your photos for those plant species that lack images.

I hope that I find support from the members to upload photos of plants that are currently missing or pointing out some big mistakes.

Due to spam, p()rn and nasty pics, a reference code is required to upload pics, and this will be given to the veteran members shortly. Other members can simply ask for one. More info here:
http://www.maltawildplants.com/!incl/Up ... tions.html

This enormous task is brought forward to some financial aid that I found during the last 2 years namely from MiddleSea plc Insurance, Strickland Foundation, and recently HSBC Cares for the Environment Fund. Thanks also for those who advertised on this website (Check Promotion page). Finally I would like to thank the additional voluntary help from my co-partners Owen Mifsud and Malin Mifsud.

Without any doubt, this project brings an honour to our Maltese islands in the eyes of the whole world via the internet, and also raising awareness and educating our citizens to take care of our precious natural heritage.

Read more on the News page of the website

The next aim is an identification key of at least 500 species of the flora of Malta. About 70sp of Poaceae also on the way.

Your feedback and contribution are welcomed. More co-partners are needed.

D. Cilia · Post by **D. Cilia** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:13 pm

WOW! So that's why you were absent from this forum on the past few days. Congratulations, and I want to let you know I'd volunteer for co-operation if needed (unfortunately not for programming though!).

Prosit once again.

IL-PINE · Post by **IL-PINE** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:15 am

ermm, I knew about your work, but I'm still speechless.

prosit, this is now probably one of the most important sites for wild plants globally.

Glimbo · Post by **Glimbo** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:15 pm

That's fantastic, all your hard work is much appreciated MWP g

jackpot · Post by **jackpot** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:26 am

What a progress for Malta due to the Wild Plants of Malta,
due to the knowledge in general,
due to the ecological awareness,
due to the environmental consciousness,
due to the MaltaWildplants.com!
When I became interested in the Maltese wild plants about 6 years ago I remember the stage of your homepage, MWP, and I remember your knowledge during our first field trips we had together. Now, my congratulations: You really became an expert in this field and the MaltaWildplants.com a first address.

Post by **MWP admin** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:25 pm

Hi guys.

Thank you so much! I feel happy reading these comments, nearly with tears. I consider them more important than the sponsors, which of course were important to sustain part of my living in 2007. The work involved in the new update involved

- A 6 months course in PHP/mySQL coding
- 3 years of fieldwork
- sorting, selecting, editing and reizing from 20,000 raw photos
- botanical research
- Coping with '-ve pressure' from some guys and entities in Malta (who knows, one day I may reveal them in a short autography as 'behind the curtain' of MWP)

I still do not feel an expert, but I am getting better, and my ambition and passion (the driving force behind this) is still strong. The website itself still needs beta-testing (correction of mistakes, broken links, etc) especially in the colour indexes.

Apart from Il-Pine and my wife which I thanked in the news section for direct voluntary work in the structure of the website, there are several other people who helped indirectly for this website, such as Edwin Lanfranco, Hans Chris Weber, Bernd Kenzior, Michael Briffa, and other forum members in particular RB who all helped me in the education part.

As JP said, up to 5-6 years ago my knowledge on flora was minute, but I could not be blamed for that - what books and literature were available to us at that time? Hence I started my mission to supply education about flora for the public, and the result is here. HCW probably felt the same way!

I hope we will still enjoy the forum as group of friends and group of experts at the same time.

I might participate a bit less on the forum than usual, partly because I recently found a new job, secondly I am writing some articles (previews might be published in the according section), and thirdly I want to take it a bit easy and enjoy my daughter and wife which maybe I carelessed during the last few months.

The Poaceae are soon to come online, and the Orchidacea shall be revised as on this Family I am perhaps really getting an expert

(4 new records so far)

Enjoy the flora of the Maltese Islands

robcar · Post by **robcar** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:22 am

Really excellent work on all fronts MWP. A really big prosit. You have developed into a very good botanist over a relatively short period of time.

You are managing to combine fieldwork and research with excellent results, and presenting these in an excellent format which is accessible to all those who are interested. Keep it up.

Although at the moment I do not have much time to dedicate to plants, I still login the forum every so often. however I had not visited the actual website for quite some time.

What a difference

Lay out is top notch - it is very nice to simply click on a family and have the full range of recorded species within the family.

I have just looked at the Orchidacea family. As you may know I just love orchids but do not have time for much orchid hunting myself, and anyway, I do not think that I have the patience and knowledge to research the finer details necessary to differentiate between somewhat similar species. So it is nice to see a number of unfamiliar species, and it seems that there is more to come. Very interesting

It is also nice to know that the Poaceae will soon be online, since I find them too difficult to identify and study. I am sure that the website will be a great help.

Anyway keep up the good work, which is making it so much easier for us (at least for me) to enjoy and learn more about our flora