创建中国豆科植物信息库的意义

    众所周知，豆科（Fabaceae）是被子植物中继兰科和菊科之后的第三大科，全世界约有42族、634属、17834种（Zhu, 2004）。中国有豆科植物33族、169属、1518种（Zhu, 2004）。豆科植物具有重要的经济价值是不言而喻的，如我们日常食用的绿豆、大豆及黄豆，要用的黄芪、甘草及苦参等均来自豆科植物，它与人们的生活密切相关，备受重视（汪发缵和唐进，1955；陈德昭，1988；《中国中草药汇编》编写组编，1990）。全世界对豆科植物的研究涉及的学科面之广令人惊讶。许多前沿学科工作的开展，都以豆科植物类群为研究对象，足以显示人类对其研究的重视程度。国际豆类数据与信息服务中心正是抓住了这一机遇，为世界豆科植物的研究、利用、开发和交流提供了很好的平台。作为植物信息库实体的植物标本、模式标本、文献资料、图片资料以及地理分布资料等诸多信息资料，在当今及未来的植物学研究领域中有着不可估量的潜在价值。因此，开展本项工作，迫切需要将前述资料整理转化成易于存取、易于交流的数据及图视影像信息，既利于高效的科研工作，也有利于存储原始信息，造福人类。
    中国科学院植物研究所植物标本馆为亚洲第一大馆，馆藏标本约为220万份，排列世界前20名之内，其中馆藏模式标本1万余份。该馆现藏豆科植物6.5万份标本，其中模式标本约280份。尽快进行该项目迫在眉睫。中国豆科植物信息库的建设，不仅要达到ILDIS的标准和要求，充分体现我们是国际大家庭的一员，也要体现中国豆科植物信息库的特色。基于上述原因，本项目将提供两个版本界面即英文版及中文版的信息系统，其目的在于既便于国际交流，又充分满足国民开发和利用豆科资源的需求。

Why to make Chinese Legume Database and Information Service (CLDIS)

    As known to all, the legume family (Fabaceae) is the third largest one after Compositae and Orchidaceae and which includes 42 tribes, 634 genera and 17834 species in the world (Zhu, 2004). Chinese legumes contain 33 tribes, 169 genera and 1518 species (Zhu, 2004). This is a very important group because Legume family supplies staple foods, fodder, and other useful products for billions of humans. The International Legume Database & Information Service (ILDIS) is an international center that aims to document and catalogue the world's legume species in readily accessible form. The new regional center Chinese Legume Database and Information Service (CLDIS) focuses on establishing Chinese Legume Database and making it to serve all of the people. For providing Chinese Legume Database, CLDIS is supervised by ILDIS and will supplies all of the Chinese Legume Database as a standard set to ILDIS. So far the International Legume Conference was held four times and many scientific researchers are doing various works on legumes in the word and published many papers every year. The ILDIS began its database work 20 years ago prospectively and provides a platform for all users to exchange any information. Its database includes information on general and type specimens, original literature, images and geographical distribution and also has the potential information. CLDIS is making this kind of database and provides a useful service. 2.2 million collections of specimens are preserved in PE. There are more or less 10000 types preserved in PE. Of all of the specimens, 65000 specimens of legumes are preserved and 280 specimens of types are maintained. According to the standards from ILDIS, we are constructing the CLDIS. The CLDIS mainly contains all of information from Chinese legumes. It is urgently necessary to push this kind of work forwards.