Encyclopedia of Bromeliads

Acknowledgment

The first expenditure of the Encyclopedia of Bromeliads CD was dedicated to the late Leo Wijffels, one of the initiators behind the idea of the project. It is already many years ago (2005) the first version was released and much has changed since. The first version was produced from a single data (text) file, some directories with images, and using a tool to create the pages in html, which was not very flexible and would make the project unmanageable with an increasing amount of resources and contributors. This single file was the base for the project SQL database, which is continuously updated and extended by several contributors. Especially the main author and Derek Butcher were working hard to add and correct or translate description and protolog data from literature. The binomial files by Harry Luther were a great help to check the completeness of the changes included in the first version.
Also additional information about Bromeliad literature and pictures references of species, varieties etc. within this literature, gathered by Leo Dijkgraaf (used on his web site Bromtravels.nl) are a welcome addition to this Encyclopedia.

Pictures are directly linked into the database and therefor managed much easier now, including all picture information. A lot of pictures used were taken at the Utrecht Botanic Gardens and at Corn. Bak's Bromeliad Nursery by the first author, and we are thankful for their cooperation. Pictures were processed partly by Cees Gouda directly in the database, using new tools to do so and making it possible to view larger images in this version. We are very happy with an increasing number of picture donors and major picture donors have their own picture upload portal in the project, loading pictures and information about them, directly into the database. It will become a challenge to have images of all species and varieties included and much more collaborators are needed to achieve this goal.
Pictures loaded into the FloraPix Gallery (an other Project of the main author) can be used for the EoB, but this has not been fully accomplished yet. Our own Bromeliad.nl server is used for development of the EoB as well as FloraPix projects and costs are financed from subscriptions.

We want to thank all mentioned collaborators on the collaborator's page in particular, but also all collaborators not mentioned by name there, like the many picture donors for their support and contribution to the project.
Further we want to thank all subscribers that support us over the years, who made it possible to run our own server, making further development possible.

October 2012

Note: For some years now, the Encyclopaedia and FloraPix are running on its own server (security reasons), therefore financial resources are needed (donations to the project are most welcome).