Acknowledgements
The GRIN-Global taxonomists are especially grateful for the ongoing
support and technical expertise of the USDA-ARS National Germplasm Resources
Laboratory, GRIN Database Management Unit, in particular Edward M. Bird,
Jimmie D. Mowder, Quinn P. Sinnott, John A. Belt, Gorm P. Emberland, John Chung,
Mark A. Bohning, Allan K. Stoner, Laura Gu, Kurt Endress, and Karen Kittell. Our ongoing dialog with many of the National
Plant Germplasm System crop curators and their liason with the Crop Germplasm
Committees has been very useful to us. In addition to the author, several
individuals, over the years, have directly contributed in various ways to GRIN-Global
taxonomic data, including Steven R. Hill, Blanca León, William E. Rice,
Edward E. Terrell, Carole A. Ritchie, Tufail Ahmed, Vickie M. Binstock, James I.
Cohen, Sasha N. Irvin, Peter C. Garvey, Michael Jeffe, Matthew Smith, and Jennifer Friedman. In the
former USDA-ARS Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory, the collaboration and
cooperation of fellow botanist Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr. (now retired from the U.S. National
Arboretum) has always been appreciated and the adminstrative support of Amy Y.
Rossman and technical assistance of David F. Farr and Erin B. McCray have been
invaluable.
Development of the web interface to GRIN-Global taxonomy was initiated by
the late Edward M. Bird and Vickie M. Binstock and has progressed through work by
the author, with the technical assistance of James S. Plaskowitz, Quinn P. Sinnott,
and David F. Farr and the design work of James S. Plaskowitz. Translations of
several web pages have been possible due to the efforts of Christian Feuillet
(French), Courtney V. Conrad (German), José R. Hernández (Spanish),
and Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr. and Blanca León (Portuguese and Spanish). We
are grateful for all these contributions.
Finally, it is impossible to acknowledge here all of the numerous
individuals whose valuable communications have greatly enriched GRIN-Global taxonomy.
Nevertheless, a number of regular correspondents have greatly assisted us in
improving the quality and accuracy of GRIN-Global taxonomy data by routinely informing us
of errors in or necessary additions to GRIN-Global data, directing our attention to items
requiring further documentation, and/or providing feedback on GRIN-Global taxonomy web
pages. Among these are Folmer Arnklit (Botanic Garden, University of Copenhagen),
Franklin S. Axelrod (University of Puerto Rico), Ken Becker (CAB International),
James A. Duke (GreenPharmacy.com), Kanchi N. Gandhi (IPNI, Harvard University
Herbaria), John R. Hosking (DPI, New South Wales, Australia), Kirsten A. Llamas
(Tropical Flowering Tree Society), James L. Reveal (Bailey Hortorium, Cornell
University), Mark W. Skinner (USDA-NRCS), and Thomas L. Wendt (University
of Texas at Austin). We are equally grateful to those
individuals who have been frequent consultants for complex nomenclatural questions,
including Kanchi N. Gandhi (IPNI, Harvard University Herbaria), Werner Greuter
(Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem), Joseph H. Kirkbride,
Jr. (U.S. National Arboretum), John McNeill (Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh), and
Dan H. Nicolson (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.).