Nine members have taken the initiative to grant access to their databank of living plants on a single platform. The project offers a user-friendly interface with which the visitor can simultaneously consult the information in the various plant collections.
View the plant collections on PLANTCOL
How Plantcol was created:
In 2001, the project was first initiated when the V.B.T.A. submitted a project request within the framework of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office's Long-Term Information Society Expansion Support Programme.
In 2002, preparations were made for constructing a website. In that same year, the decision was made to collaborate with forest arboreta via the V.B.T.A. members, even if these arboreta were not members. A further expansion of an inventory of Belgian collections of cultivated plants was instigated. The non-profit organisation, "Plantencollectief" (Plant Collective), was set up, which is open to collectors and administrators throughout Flanders. The objective was to bring together collections whose existence was threatened at a single repository, for the registration, protection and acknowledgement of valuable plant collections.
In May 2003, "Plantcol" was therefore established, an umbrella electronic information system for the genetic sources of living plant material and woody plants. The establishment of this database was subsidised by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office's Long-Term Information Society Expansion Support Programme (DWTC).