Help:Classification of uses

By shifting to the Edit mode, you will be able to copy a full list of ready-to-use category names.

Introduction

Categories are a particular feature of Mediawiki. They appear in a bottom bar of any page. They are very useful to group and classify similar pages. The problem is that useful plants form a very large group, and categories consiting of thousands of elements would not be workable. This is why we propose to split the biggest categories in order to maintain a reasonable number of species.

We consider here as major all the species which are produced commercially and traded on long distances. Species only used locally are considered as minor.

There is no need to create subcategories called Other, because such pages will appear in a distinct place in the right category.

By using categories systematically, statistics can be obtained automatically about the number of species used in each group.

Comments are welcome, but changes will be difficult to implement when many species will be documented, as changes have to be done manually.

See also an introduction on Use groups.

List of categories

Here are the base categories proposed for recognition in Pl@ntUse. The words in bold give the names of categories that should be put at the end of each species page if relevant. The categories are then automatically grouped to form higher categories. For example, Tropical fruit, major > Tropical fruit > Fruit > Fruits and nuts > Use groups, major > Use groups.

In order to facilitate the work as well of the reader as the contributor, please follow the order of categories.

The links are to the introduction page for each use group.

Food uses

• Cereals (including pseudo-cereals): Cereal, cultivated / Pseudo-cereal, cultivated / Cereal, wild / Pseudo-cereal, wild.
• Pulses: Pulse, major / Pulse, minor.
• Vegetables: Temperate vegetable, major / Temperate vegetable, minor / Temperate vegetable, wild / Tropical vegetable, major / Tropical vegetable, minor / Tropical vegetable, wild.
• Fruits (including nuts): Temperate fruit, major / Temperate fruit, minor / Temperate fruit, wild / Tropical fruit, major / Tropical fruit, minor / Tropical fruit, wild / Nut, major / Nut, minor / Nut, wild.
• Sugar plants: Sugar.
• Starches (other than cereals): Starch, major / Starch, minor.
• Oil plants (in part, including fats): Food oil.
• Dyes and tannins (in part): Food colorant / Tannin.
• Spices and condiments: Spice, major / Spice, minor / Herb, major / Herb, minor.
• Stimulants and beverage plants (including plants used for chewing or smoking): Beverage / Chewing plant / Smoking plant
• Food additives: Food additive.

Non-food uses

• Dyes and tannins (in part): Textile dye / Body dye / Tannin.
• Technical plants (industry...): Cork / Soap.
• Ornamentals (including hedge and wayside plants): Hedge / Ornamental tree / Pot plant / Cut flower / Foliage / Bulb / Garden plant, temperate / Garden plant, tropical.
• Timbers (including bamboos used for construction): Temperate timber, major / Temperate timber, minor / Tropical timber, major / Tropical timber, minor / Bamboo.
• Auxiliary plants (including shade and nurse trees, live supports, cover crops, mulches, green manures, fallow crops, live fences, windbreaks, erosion-controlling plants, land reclamation species, and water-cleaning agents): Auxiliary plant, Grafting, Green manure, Windbreak, Soil fixation.
• Fuel plants (including plants used for the production of charcoal and as tinder): Fuel.
• Medicinal plants (including poisonous plants used as pesticide, fish poison or dart poison, and narcotic plants): Human medicine, temperate major / Human medicine, temperate minor / Human medicine, tropical major / Human medicine, tropical minor / Veterinary medicine, temperate / Veterinary medicine, tropical / Fish poison / Arrow poison / Pesticide / Narcotic. (In the texts, it will be enough to say "Medicine" when speaking of "Human medicine").
• Essential oils (including aromatic woods and plants producing camphor): Essential oil, Perfume.
• Exudates (including plants producing latex, resin, balsam, gum, wax and aromatic resin): Latex / Resin / Gum / Wax /Aromatic resin.
• Oil plants (in part): Industrial oil
• Fibres (including rattans, and plants used for packing and thatching, as tying material, and for making paper, baskets, mats, wickerwork, wattle work and toothbrushes): Textile fibre / Basketry / Tying / Filling fibre / Paper / Toothbrush.
• Forages (including feed for fish and insects such as silkworms): Forage, cultivated / Forage, wild major / Forage, wild minor / Fish feed / Insect feed.
• Bee plants: Bee plant.
• Plants used for social, magic or religious purposes: Religion / Magics / Body ornament (including cosmetics) / Plant for playing.
• Plants imbedded in culture (including art, literature, symbolism): Art / Literature / Symbol.

Novel uses

• Novel industrial plants (in particular those giving a raw material for green chemistry): Novel plant.
• Model plants for research, or as tool for plant breeding: Model plant.
• Wild relatives of crops (the use of which is potential and indirect): CWR.