There are many wikis in the world, and there are a few in existence already for plants. Unfortunately they all target different audiences and have their own technical and legal limitations.
What we're after is a plant database that is suited to getting information from people who know permaculture design practices to people and groups learning about and trying to apply them. In order to help this audience, we think a number of traits will be necessary, and all of the existing databases fail on at least one of these counts
Imagine you want to get into gardening. So you ask your friend with the beautiful yard how to get started. What sort of information and encouragement could they give that would help you get started?
There is a renaissance happening right now, of people trying to reconnect with Nature who may have largely missed out on these interactions as children or even young adults. For them simple knowledge such as how to pluck a tomato or an apple without damaging the plant cannot be assumed, but this is critical information, especially in public or semi-public places.
Permaculture is ultimately an extremely complex topic, but for a beginner it doesn't have to be that way. We plan to explore information useful for beginners and those of intermediate skill at first, and expand into more esoteric topics as time and interest allows.
The information is going to come primarily from people who know permaculture. Of the people I have met who are knowledgable, most are outdoorsy sorts, of fair computer literacy. The few who are especially savvy are balanced out by a number who are just as equally averse. We are choosing Markdown for this reason, and in particular the CommonMark variant. This will likely require some code contributions to the CommonMark community to achieve, but we are prepared for that.
A wiki is a great place to learn, but it's not the only way to learn, and is not the best way for all people. Interactive websites and applications can add different ways to benefit from the data in a plant database. To do that a freeform wiki format won't suffice. Several plant databases have conventions for page layout and structure that help humans find the information but are insufficient for partners to utilize the information completely.
In order to support partnerships, the information has to be sufficiently unencumbered to allow people to reference it from other websites and applications. We want to partner with other projects, especially public spaces, around our region and the rest of the country to compare notes, and develop a common knowledge base that we can all share and link to suplement our own information.
Permaculture is really about being effective with your time and efforts over the long haul. A big part of that is using plants that are appropriate to your plot of land, and other plants can get along with them. Many species generally regarded as useful are only well behaved in some climates and are invasive or difficult to manage in others. Plant databases, like garden books, tend to gloss over these details. We would like to focus on these issues in depth, so that people don't regret a planting decision.