ANTHOS is a program that was developed in accordance with a specific agreement between the Fundación Biodiversidad (Biodiversity Foundation) (Ministry of the Environment) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spanish National Research Council) - Real Jardín Botánico (Royal Botanic Garden) (Ministry of Education & Science) in order to show assorted information about the plant life of Spain on the Internet.
The program was initiated in the year 1999 with a computer application that has been continually updated to the beginning of the year 2006 - http://www.programanthos.org - and has included up to 700,000 data on plants, using as its source mainly Spanish botanical bibliography. The information on this first application may be seen here.
In the year 2005, in accordance with the stipulations in the second agreement for the development of the project, a new computer application was ordered which has been developed in a geographic information system (GIS), which became accessible to the public on a trial basis in April 2006.
This new application integrates and improves upon the procedures and consultations of the previous application, noticeably increasing the amount of data available, - currently running at close to 1.1million - ranging to close on 2 million records, which is what we calculate for the botanical bibliography of Spain. Furthermore, the new application combines chorological information with other information of a cartographic nature concerning environmental variables and reference maps, all of which allows cited plants to be more accurately located, as well as explaining in graphic form the patterns of distribution of the different species.
Authorisation from FEGA (Minstry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) for the incorporation of the orhtophotography managed by SIGPAC has meant a revolution in the showing of maps of the distribution of biological organisms on the Internet, facilitating the locating and the topographical description of each of the citations included.
The overall geographical environment chosen for the project is a view of the Iberian Peninsula and the Macaronesian islands (Canaries, Madeira and the Azores) as a representation of each of the biogeographical units to be found in Spain, so that the distribution of a taxon may be studied throughout the entire national territory and surrounding area, fully integrating the taxon in its geographical component.
The taxonomic framework for the use and management of the names of plants is still the project Flora iberica, which provides us with essential knowledge in the areas of taxonomy, chorology, cytology, etc. Anthos follows their criteria faithfully.
Thus, the taxonomic treatment offered is the following:
The distribution maps of plants have been drawn up from the chorological information published in scientific magazines and books, along with data from herbarium collections, reviewed by specialised authors who submit their data to us.
The initial bibliographic information came from the database of chorological citations which the Royal Botanic Garden (CSIC) began to prepare in the year 1986, in accordance with the CSIC-INEM(National Institute for Employment) agreement and which was later published under the name of Archivos de Flora iberica [Velayos, M., Castilla, F. & Gamarra, R. -eds.-, Corología ibérica 1-3. Arch. Fl. Iberica vol. 2 (1991), 3 (1991) y 5 (1992); Velayos, M. & Castilla, F. -eds.-, Corología ibérica 4. Arch. Fl. Iberica vol. 6 (1993)]. This original information was cleaned up and later greatly extended, thanks to the project ANTHOS, until reaching its current number of 1.1 million entries obtained in scientific publications.
The data from herbarium collections are received from critical reviews, normally carried out by authors of genus syntheses for Flora iberica, who submit their data to us. In some particular cases herbarium data for some plants has been added, in order to help complete their distribution. The sum of the plant data from herbaria is close on 9,000 sheets.
Recently, we have also added a great amount of duly contrasted information, from other databases. This information is shown as it was provided (with the obligatory adaptation for formats) and the origin is cited in each record, so that it can be duly identified.
We currently have access to the following databases:
Some of the chorological data of plants collected in the botanical bibliography, have shown, over time, to be somewhat unreliable, in which cases, although we are obliged to show them to the public, we have marked them with the label QUESTIONABLE so that the User may be aware of the fact that the citation needs verification of some type. This label appears in a distinguishable form both on the distribution maps and on the lists.
Further to the distribution maps for the plants, we have incorporated other information which may be of great interest to users, such as: common names, chromosome numbers, synonymy, state of conservation, drawings and photographs.
The common names were initially taken from the volumes published in the work Flora iberica, to which has been added the information contained in the database "Nombres vernáculos" (Common names), gathered and maintained by Dr. Ramón Morales (Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC) and his team of collaborators, and published in part in the series "Archivos de Flora iberica" (Morales, R. Nombres vulgares I, Arch. Fl. Iberica 4 ,1992; Morales & Macía, Nombres vulgares II, Arch. Fl. Iberica 7, 1996). This information has been maintained and updated in collaboration with Anthos.
The information regarding chromosome numbers comes from a previously published database [Castroviejo, S. & Valdés-Bermejo, E. -eds.-, Números cromosomáticos de plantas vasculares ibéricas, I. Arch. Fl. Iberica 1 (1991)], which was subsequently updated with the more recent bibliography.
The information on synonyms of the accepted names comes from the database NOMEN of Flora iberica. For those genera as yet not studied in this project, as we have already explained, the system of nomenclature employed by Med-Checklist and Flora europaea has been adapted to the structure of Anthos, with the aim of obtaining a homogeneous nomenclature database.
The information on the state of conservation comes from a database which we created and in which we have included the Legal Standards on the protection of plants effective in Spanish territory, along with information on books and red lists.
The illustrations we offer were submitted from several sources: the black and white plates were provided by Flora iberica and were undertaken by different botanical artists. The coloured plates were submitted from other classical works on Iberian and Macaronesian flora which, due to their antiquity, are no longer subject to authors' or editors' rights.
Photographs of the plants shown were acquired or submitted from diverse artists, whose names appear at the foot of each photo. They are also responsible for the identification of the plants. In some cases, due to our interest in completing certain collections of images of plants in a geographical or taxonomic area, said photographs were taken within the Anthos project itself, in which case we assume all responsibility for the identification of the plants that appear.
As in the preceding version, under the epigraph listings, we have developed a format for the output of data for each consultation on the distribution of a plant. Thus, the User has access to the information that backs up each of the citations. This relation may be downloaded in different formats (txt, csv and xml) which allow for subsequent editing, using the usual geographical and statistical tools.
The Cartographic information we provide comes from free, public services or was submitted by private individuals.
Google Maps is loaded with the corresponding licenses, as is Blue Marble and also the climatic variable layers provided by Atlas Climático de la Península Ibérica (Climatic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula).
The Banco de Datos de la Naturaleza (Nature Data Bank), of the Ministry of the Environment, provided us with the the UTM grid, which we later extended to the whole area of visualisation, as with information corresponding to National Parks.
The information in the Geological Map was taken from the SEIS.NET program, Sistema Español de Información de Suelos de España sobre Internet (Spanish Information System of Spanish Soils on the Internet).
We have been authorised by FEGA remote visualisation of the orthophotos of the management tool of the Rural Register, known as SIGPAC (System of Identification of Agricultural Plots), for which we have availed ourselves of the generous help of those responsible for said application in TRAGSATEC
Antonio F. Rodríguez Pascual, of the IGN (National Geographic Institute) suggested that we use the WMS service to load layer information provided within the framework of the IDEE (Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de España, Ministerio de Fomento) (Spatial Data Infrastructure of Spain, Ministry of Public Works)
The Modelo Digital del Terreno (MDT, Digital Terrain Model) was made up by Geodata S.L. from GTOPO30.
The information provided in the Anthos Project is distributed on the Internet in a free and public fashion for the benefit of whoever may wish to use it; Anthos accepts no responsibility for its reliability, which is the sole responsibility of the authors of the chorological, taxonomic and photographic works.
Anthos is a system undergoing constant review and updates, for which reason changes in criteria on part of any of the authors or experts therein regarding citations previously published shall in no way be considered the responsibility of Anthos, except in the scientific sense. Under no circumstances shall the data contained in Anthos be used as a reference to legal effect, without prior verification in the original sources of information.
However, the compilation and management of said information is the work of Anthos, and we should be grateful to be cited as an electronic resource in scientific, technical and professional works of divulgence which have availed themselves of the data offered by the program. To this end, and in view of the variety of possibilities, we suggest the following:
Anthos. 2006[year of consultation]. Information System of the plants of Spain. Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC - Fundación Biodiversidad. Electronic resource at www.anthos.es. Consultation carried out in March 2006[date of consultation].
Since 1999, the year in which Anthos, was initiated, a great number of users have generously collaborated with us, informing us of errors or faults detected or offering information of interest. To all of them, as well as to the institutions and the group of consultants and collaborators both within the Real Jardín Botánico or external to it, we owe our deepest thanks for their help which, from the outset and up to this day, we have so generously received.
On this new road which started at the beginning of 2006, we hope to continue to count on the collaboration of any user, as we are very much aware that this is one of the best ways of correcting and updating the extremely complex information in these pages, and that without the assistance of our collaborators it would indeed be a much more difficult task.
To this end, and for any other consultation regarding the Anthos project or the issues it deals with, please contact us at email address, where all consultations shall be attended.