USDA's GRIN Plant Taxonomy is Better Than "Plant Look Up" for Determining Genus/Species for Lacey Act Amendments Declaration
According to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sources, the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) Taxonomy for Plants1 is often a better tool for helping to determine the correct plant genus and species for the Lacey Act Amendments than the Plant Genus and Species Look Up provided on APHIS' Lacey Act Web page.
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GRIN Taxonomy is Worldwide and Focus Includes Economic Plants
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service states that the GRIN Taxonomy for Plants Website has the families and genera of vascular plants and over 46,000 species from throughout the world are represented, especially economic plants and their relatives.
The GRIN Taxonomy for Plants Website includes information on scientific and common names, classification, distribution, references, and economic impacts.
"Plant Look Up" Tool Limited to North America, U.S. and Caribbean
According to APHIS sources and the Plant Look Up Tool, the geographic coverage of the Plant Genus and Species Look Up is limited. The Plant Look Up states that its database is limited to North America for certain non-vascular plants (mosses, lichens, etc.), and the U.S. and its Caribbean territories for vascular plants (tress, flowering plants, ferns, etc.).
1The GRIN Web site's taxonomic data provide the structure and nomenclature for accessions of the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS).
(See ITT's Online Archives or 03/20/09 news, 09032005, for BP summary of APHIS' recommendation of GRIN for Plants to meet certain Lacey Act declaration requirements, etc.
See today's issue of ITT, 09032515, for BP summary of updates to the Plant and Plant Product Declaration Form.)
GRIN information Web page available at http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/index.pl
GRIN Taxonomic Nomenclature Checker available at http://pgrdoc.bioversity.cgiar.org/taxcheck/grin/index.html
Look up plant genus and species (limited tool) available at http://plants.usda.gov/classification.html