Persephone – online plant recording database
About Persephone
Persephone is a secure online plant recording system that has been developed for Plant Heritage by a small group of National Collection Holders for use to record National Plant Collections®. It is an online database and it brings together information heldby collection holders, all recorded to a common standard. The system was first trialled in Devon and Hampshire in late 2013 and feedback from users has contributed substantially to its development.
Because Persephone is online, it can be used on any internet enabled device, such as a laptop, tablet or mobile phone, anywhere in the world, providing that there is connection to the internet. The data is regularly backed up by the hosting service and by the Persephone Team.
Using Persephone is free to collection holders.
Using Persephone
Collection Holders wishing to use Persephone are issued with a secure login to the Persephone website. The website is owned by Plant Heritage but the data is owned by collection holders and shall not be used without their express permission. Collection holders may ask for named individuals (such as fellow enthusiasts or their coordinator) to be given permission to view all or part of their data via the Persephone website. They may also make their Accession (Plant) List available to the Plant Conservation Officer via Persephone.
What information can be recorded on Persephone?
Persephone is made up of standard fields and other fields. Standard fields include plant name (genus, species…..cultivar name); accession number; date of accession and source. Plant names can be compared against the names on the RHS Horticultural Database using Persephone’s ‘one click’ name checker, but they are not selected from it. Only a small number of the standard fields are mandatory (Genus, Accession Number and Date). The selection and layout of standard fields can be set up for individual collections, using Persephone’s Form Editor.
Other fields can be customised to order. One collection holder may wish to store text about the history of the plants in their collections; another may wish to store a table of measurements of leaf size or plant height and so on. Images and small documents may also be added to plants or accessions.
How do I get my data onto Persephone?
If your data is already stored electronically, for example, on Access, Excel or even Word, transfer of the data to Persephone is usually straightforward and this work can be done for you by the Persephone Team. If your collection is recorded on paper, help may still be available on a case-by-case basis. A lot of help is built into Persephone, onscreen and in an online help manual. Support is also available from the Persephone team who will be glad to help.
Getting data out
Persephone produces a number of standard (.pdf) reports including Plant Lists and Desiderata and your Accession List may be submitted to National Office directly via Persephone. Other reports can be exported to order and can be viewed in an Excel spreadsheet.
How to get help
For more information or help when using Persephone, please get in touch with a member of the Persephone Team by telephone or e-mail: David and Penny Ross – 01363 866401 ; Doug Smith - 01329 833253 .
Who runs Persephone and can I get involved?
Persephone is a volunteer led project, overseen by the Board of Plant Heritage and managed by the Persephone Working Group, made up of a number of experts including Collection Holders, Collection Co-ordinators, Board members and National Office members.The software was written for Plant Heritage by a (then) Computer Science Postgraduate student, who is now supporting the project on a voluntary basis. The Persephone Team would like to recruit a small number of members in different parts of the country to support Persephone users. This is an interesting role (especially over the long winter months) for anyone who is computer literate, very methodical and keen to learn more about the national plant collections. To find out more about the project, or to put your collection onto Persephone, please contact any member of the team.
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