Nix

Software for taxonomic informatics

© 2007 Steven Kembel.

Nix is a tool for automating the process of looking up synonyms and taxonomic information for plant species. Nix is simply a front-end to existing databases of taxonomic information.

Currently, Nix queries the list of Plantae taxa included in the June 15, 2007 version of the ITIS taxonomic database. Synonymy and taxonomic information in this database is complete for North American vascular plant species, but very incomplete for the rest of the world, so use with caution.

Nix is entirely dependent on the availability of taxonomic databases such as ITIS. It would be easy to extend Nix to use other sources of taxonomic information as they become available. Please contact me with any comments or suggestions.

If you use Nix, please cite me and acknowledge the source of the taxonomic data:

• Kembel, S.W. 2007. Nix: software for taxonomic informatics. http://phylodiversity.net/nix/
• Taxonomic data retrieved June 15, 2007 from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) (http://www.itis.gov).

Nix is open-source software released under the terms of the GPL v2.0 license (contact me if you’d like a copy of the source). Thanks to Cam Webb for hosting the software on phylodiversity.net and to ITIS for making the data available.

Query ITIS Plantae

Species list

• One name per line
• Do not include authority
• Abbreviate subspecific ranks (subspecies = ssp., variety = var.)

Name matching

Exact
Partial (if full name unmatched, attempts to match first word in name)

Output format

Tab-delimited spreadsheet format
Phylomatic format