Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) is a multilingual database of names of taxa of plants. It is located at the University of Melbourne and it is managed and maintained by Michel H. Porcher. This database includes the names of taxa of more than 900 genera of higher plants (not counting mushrooms). In addition to the scientific name and synonyms, it contains the names of the taxa in 82 major languages (its website says it includes 70 languages) in which 40 languages or dialects more are included). MMPND is mentioned in many taxa of GRIN-Global (Germplasm Resources Information Network), "References" as a: Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource). (Pl Names) The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) mentions: "Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database is searchable in any language and script and holds a lot of information including an index of medicinal plants". The stated aims of MMPND are the following: "... the intention is to cover as many useful plants as possible. What is useful in one part of the world however can be a weed, even a noxious weed, in another. Our political stand is that, whether it is a selection or a species, if it is declared useful by some people, provided that we can get a minimum of information about it and that we can handle the data, it is in. We basically foresee 8 categories of plants. In order of decreasing importance we will consider: Vegetables, Cereals, Fruits, Mushrooms / Fungi, Herbs, Pasture / Fodder Crops, Medicinal plants, and what may be termed "Utilitarian crops" such as fibre, oil crops, stimulants etc. We feel that in the last fifty years the first 3 categories have been attracting far too little attention from taxonomists, especially below the species level. These three groups of edible plants include all the world staple foods and their related cultivars and selections. These have been bred and improved over centuries. They are the basic ingredients of the world ethnic cuisines ...". The first objective was to focus on useful plants, the cultivated ones, but the database currently contains the names of plants of economic importance as well as names of savage plants. For each genus, the last updating is indicated. These multilingual names are presented by genera, as follows:

Gymnosperms and angiosperms

* Lists of names, General part: Angiosperms (and some few repeated genera of Gymnosperms) (570 genera). * Conifers, Gymnosperms (75 genera).

Other sections

* Bamboos (65 genera). * Palms (Palms and Cycads)(173 genera). * Medicinal plants (42 plus genera not covered in other sections). * Fungi (Fungi, Mushrooms)(54 genera) Indexes of plant names in various languages.

Examples of citations

en:

Abutilon ''Abutilon'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics Allium chinense ''Allium chinense'' (also known as Chinese onion,Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name DatabaseUniversity of Melbourne. Updated 3 August 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2014. Chinese scallion, glittering chive, Japanese scallion, Kiangsi scallion, a ...

Amaranthus tricolor ''Amaranthus tricolor'', known as edible amaranth, is a species of flowering plant in the genus '' Amaranthus'', part of the family Amaranthaceae. The plant is often cultivated for ornamental and culinary purposes. It is known as bireum in Korea ...

Banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...

Beetroot The beetroot is the taproot portion of a beet plant, usually known in North America as beets while the vegetable is referred to as beetroot in British English, and also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet, dinner beet or golden beet ...

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower * Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum ...

Beta vulgaris ''Beta vulgaris'' (beet) is a species of flowering plant in the subfamily Betoideae of the family Amaranthaceae. Economically, it is the most important crop of the large order Caryophyllales. It has several cultivar groups: the sugar beet, of gr ...

Black-eyed pea The black-eyed pea or black-eyed bean is a legume grown around the world for its medium-sized, edible bean. It is a subspecies of the cowpea, an Old World plant domesticated in Africa, and is sometimes simply called a cowpea. The common comme ...

, Blood banana, ... (and until 95 citations). ca:

Asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus '' Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. It was once classified ...

, Blat de moro dolç, Cantalup,

Citrus unshiu ''Citrus unshiu'' is a semi-seedless and easy-peeling citrus species, also known as miyagawa mandarin, unshu mikan, cold hardy mandarin, satsuma mandarin, satsuma orange, naartjie, and tangerine. ''Citrus unshiu'' was named after Unshu (Wenzho ...

Cupressus ''Cupressus'' is one of several genera of evergreen conifers within the family Cupressaceae that have the common name cypress; for the others, see cypress. It is considered a polyphyletic group. Based on genetic and morphological analysis, the ge ...

, Drago , Enciam, Multilingüisme, Rave blanc, Remolatxa d'hort,

Thymus The thymus is a specialized primary lymphoid organ of the immune system. Within the thymus, thymus cell lymphocytes or ''T cells'' mature. T cells are critical to the adaptive immune system, where the body adapts to specific foreign invaders. ...

. (and until 11 citations). de: Adzukibohne, AfrikanischerTulpenbaum, Bananen,

Bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...

, Canarium luzonicum, Dioscorea rotundata,

Durian The durian (, ) is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognised ''Durio'' species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. '' Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the o ...

, ... (and until 34 citations). es: '' Actinorhytis,

Aleurites moluccanus ''Aleurites moluccanus'', the candlenut, is a flowering tree in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, also known as candleberry, Indian walnut, ''kemiri'', varnish tree, ''nuez de la India'', ''buah keras'', ''godou'', kukui nut tree, and ''rata ...

Annona cherimola The cherimoya (''Annona cherimola''), also spelled chirimoya and called chirimuya by the Inca people, is a species of edible fruit-bearing plant in the genus '' Annona'', from the family Annonaceae, which includes the closely related sweetsop a ...

, Annona muricata,

Areca catechu ''Areca catechu'' is a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. The palm is believed to have originated in the Philippines, but is widespread in cultivation and is considered naturalized in sou ...

Borassus aethiopum ''Borassus aethiopum'' is a species of ''Borassus'' palm from Africa. In English it is variously referred to as African fan palm, African palmyra palm, deleb palm, ron palm, toddy palm, black rhun palm, rônier palm (from the French). It is wides ...

Brassica rapa ''Brassica rapa'' is a plant species growing in various widely cultivated forms including the turnip (a root vegetable); napa cabbage, bomdong, bok choy, and rapini. ''Brassica rapa'' subsp. ''oleifera'' is an oilseed which has many common ...

'' subsp. ''narinosa'', ... (and until 27 citations). fr: ''

Acacia gummifera ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus n ...

'', Aspects culturels de la pomme de terre, Betterave potagère, ''

Bunium bulbocastanum ''Bunium bulbocastanum'' is a plant species in the family Apiaceae. It was once used as a root vegetable in parts of western Europe, and has been called great pignut or earthnut. Growth The plant is native to western Europe. It reaches about ...

'', Cavendish (bananier), Châtaigne d'eau chinoise, Chicoréepain de sucre, ... (and until 28 citations).

External links

Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database
(Official website)

References

{{reflist Online botany databases Databases in Australia