I wanted to make a little checklist of plants and collect as much data about them as possible, except genetics. Just the data more practical for non-eggheads, like taxonomy, location, brief descriptions, common names, practical uses etc. plus all their sources. I know scientific and academic data is fragmented across a gorillion different databases and sites and I would need to collect it all myself, that much I expected.

What I wasn't counting on was the complete lack of a standardized format for the information. Or rather, there seem to be some standards out there, but they don't seem to be used by anything other than those rarified academic softwares and shit. I tried setting up one EDIT Taxonomic Editor, but it was too much for my brainlet, and I don't even know if it could be used to the end I wanted anyway. There's this Specify 6 which I have been trying to get started too, but it's an uphill battle.

Surely there's at least one data organization format for species taxonomy accessible to laymen? Something to just input data in a format appropriate for a checklist of different species so they can be edited and text-searched and whatnot, without having to start fucking Gopher protocol servers or some shit. I know the sheer amount of information prevents the creation of something neat and tidy like IMDB or something, but I can't find even guidelines on how to format my dinky little "database" of a couple of dozen plants without anything as arcane as genetic data.

inb4 "just write it all down on a TXT bro"