JARS v64n4 - An Online Rhododendron Database: The Hirsutum Project

An Online Rhododendron Database: The Hirsutum Project
Herman van Ree
Nunspeet, The Netherlands

Summary The Hirsutum project website is a user friendly and comprehensive web listing of known Rhododendron species and hybrids, complete with photos and information about many of the plants. All photos and information have been donated by users, and everyone is encouraged to submit their own photos to help provide plant descriptions. There is a provision for every user to set up a personal garden site to keep track of their plants. The site was initiated by a group of rhododendron enthusiasts in the Netherlands and is headed by Herman Van Ree. Its a most welcome and informative site, and can be found at www.hirsutum.info.

Why is it called "The Hirsutum Project"? Rhododendron hirsutum was the first rhododendron to be classified and named. It was discovered in the 16th century by a Flemish botanist, Charles l'Ecluse, who later became called Clusius.

The purpose of the website is to give an overview (photos and information) of as many rhododendron species and cultivars (hybrids) as possible. It's a virtual botanical garden, a virtual arboretum and an online database with information and pictures.

Everyone can help to build this database. There are instructions on the site as to how to log on and to contribute pictures of your rhododendrons. There is also a list of contributors to the Hirsutum Project. Its absolutely non-commercial, with no banners or advertising!

The Website
The online rhododendron database at http://www.hirsutum.info takes advantage of new communication possibilities provided by the internet. This database is an initiative of the Dutch Chapter of the ARS, which started with putting some photos on the internet in June, 2009. It has since evolved into a ten year project, with the code-name "Hirsutum." Contributions, i.e., photos, for the project now come from all over the world.

Why Add Another Database?
There are many great websites about rhododendrons, so why add another one? To my knowledge, none of the existing websites uses a relational database. The advantages of creating such a database are that it can show:
1. all hybrids per hybridizer,
2. all hybrids per species-parent,
3. all hybrids per hybrid-parent,
4. various photos of foliage, buds and flower, and
5. proof that some hybrids are not yet "extinct" by allowing documentation of recent photos of them.

The challenge is there are 35,000 to 40,000 rhododendron hybrids, including azaleas and vireyas. Information in the database is based on the International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA), the Journal of the American Rhododendron Society and the International Rhododendron Register and Checklist (IRRC). There is however a tendency among some hybridizers not to register their new hybrids. Consequently, the database also contains a "named unregistered" category, which has over 600 hybrids at this time.

Fig. 1: Example of documentation on the website, using R. aberconwayi as an example (pictures on the website are not shown here). Subgenus : Hymenanthes Section : Pontica Subsection : Irrorata In cultivation since: 1937 First described: 1948, (Cowan) Origin: N.E. Yunnan, Lo Shiueh under 3000 meter Corolla: open flat saucer-shaped Leaves: oblong-elliptic to broadly lanceolate Habit: terrestrial Winter: evergreen Bloom time: late midseason Hardiness: H3 Predominant color: white Height : 250 cm (8 ft) Extra information. Registered on hirstum.info: 15 Clones / selections : ‘His Lordship’, 1945, Crown Estate Commissioners, Windsor, Berkshire, England ‘West Haven’, unknown.

Hybridizers from all over the world (e.g., Denmark, Finland, USA, Estonia) have sent photos of their new products, and creation this database is an ongoing process. Visitors to the website have to date sent over 4500 photos of their rhododendrons. These photos can be of great help in identifying an unknown rhododendron. For example, suppose you bought a 'Tortoiseshell Orange', but unfortunately it flowers pink. Obviously the name-tag is wrong, but what is growing now in your garden can perhaps be determined by searching for images that meet the color characteristic of your plant.

Visitor Interaction: Rhodoholics Online
A website with a rhododendron database is okay, but the real fun part of the website is playing with a section called "My Garden." There, visitors can create their own login and manage their own rhododendron collection. One can note, for example, simply with a few clicks that: "I have three 'Scarlet Wonders' bought/layered/grafted/cutting/sown in 1995, growing to the left of the pond in half shade. This year they flowered from the May 12-21."

Visitors can then download a photo-album page with all their rhodo's listed, along with listed detailed information. All the combined information from the "My Garden" submissions gives a nice overview of bloom time durations and indications of hardiness for many species or cultivars. For example, if a particular species flowers in Finland, it ought to also survive the similar hardiness zone in Northwest America. It also indicates whether a hybrid is still available or not, and for hybridizers, it can give an overview of the global spread of their cultivars.

Visitors can "open" their "My Garden" for other visitors to "walk around," and they can "personalize" it by selecting/providing photos. Some people like flower close-ups, while others want to see the whole plant.

Quality Assurance - The Key to Success
The photos that are shown for each species or cultivar need to have correct identification. To this end, the functionality of the website is tested on an on-going basis, and visitors can note any potential errors by remarks and comments by email. Classification of species is a big issue...we try to follow the latest publications. The quality-assurance team has three members at the moment: Garth Wedemire, Canada, Everard Daniel, UK, and Tijs Huisman, Netherlands

Continuity
To ensure that this project will not end one day with a "dead" website, a foundation to ensure its perpetuity has been established. In the future this foundation will need funds, such as to pay the web-hosting, and even possibly to hire someone to maintain the website. At the moment, I hope to be able to finish the ten-year project as webmaster. The database presently contains over 17,000 hybrids, so there are still around 18,000 more to enter!

Herman van Ree is the webmaster of www.hirsutum.info, and is a member of the Dutch Chapter of the ARS.