A new update of Plant Base for desktop/laptop systems is available for download today. This covers all editions – Windows, MacOS and Linux.

It is essentially a maintenance release with some bug fixes plus a few small changes for the user interface.

It also includes updated plant database files, data release 30, which has some new plant records and pictures as well as many amendments to existing records. A lot of these are due to more plant name changes and reclassifications from the taxonomy authorities such as the RHS and Kew. Some of the name changes are quite controversial and maybe not welcomed by traditional gardeners. For example rosemary is now a Salvia rather than Rosmarinus. However, they do have a scientic basis and I guess that we will all have to get used to them! In all cases the previous names are kept in the database as synonyms.

For existing users updating the program version is, as always, very quick and easy. To update the database files please follow the instructions on the website and in the Help file.