The Flora covers the biogeographic region of the moist, relictual, unglaciated southeastern North America: south of the glacial boundary and east of the “dry line” to the west that marks a marked floristic boundary to the Great Plains prairies to the...

With digitization and data sharing initiatives underway over the last 15 years, an important need has been prioritizing specimens to digitize. Because duplicate specimens are shared among herbaria in exchange and gift programs, we investigated the...

This Research Topic aims to synthesize and inspire the frontier of integrative and translational research using herbarium collections to highlight their unharvested potential for addressing outstanding research questions and societal challenges. The...

As herbaria move to digitize their collections, the question remains of how to efficiently
digitize collections other than standard herbarium sheets, such as wood slide collections.
Beginning in September 2018, the Harvard University...

Disease detection is one of many vital missions that biodiversity collections play, along with environmental assessment, online education, and detection of crop disease and potential bioterror
organisms, among many other uses. But the COVID-19...

Plant biodiversity is threatened, yet many species remain undescribed. It is estimated that >50% of undescribed species have already been collected and are awaiting discovery in herbaria. Robust automatic species identification algorithms using...

We partnered with various federal, state, and private interests to evaluate the floristic composition at the Garden City Terminal of the Port of Savannah, Georgia, USA. We conducted the following study to demonstrate the collaborative relationship-...

Plant phenological responses to global warming are well studied. However, while many locations are experiencing increased temperatures, some locations are experiencing climate cooling. Little work has been conducted to understand plant phenological...

A collaborative relationship between Asa Gray Garden at Mount Auburn (an active cemetery), architects, and nearby Arnold Arboretum resulted in a beautiful and inspiring garden featuring trees, shrubs, and perennials that provide color, texture, and...

Natural history museums are unique spaces for interdisciplinary research and for educational
innovation. Through extensive exhibits and public programming and by hosting rich
communities of amateurs, students, and researchers at all...

Davallia solida (G. Forst.) Sw. (Davalliaceae), Phlebodium aureum (L.) J. Sm. (Polypodiaceae), Phlebodium pseudoaureum (Cav.) Lellinger (Polypodiaceae), and Rumohra adiantiformis (G. Forst.) Ching (Dryopteridaceae) are epiphytic ferns native to the...

Studies in plant phenology have provided some of the best evidence for large-scale responses to recent climate change. Over the last decade, more than thirty studies have used herbarium specimens to analyze changes in flowering phenology over time,...

Herbarium specimens are increasingly recognized as an important resource for conservation
science and virtual herbaria are making specimens freely available to a wider range of users than ever before. Few virtual herbaria are designed with...

Major international herbaria, natural history museums and universities have recently begun to digitise their collections to facilitate studies and improve access to collections. In Japan, more than 10 million herbarium specimens are housed in various...

The Systematics Collections Committee of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists has updated the recommendations on herbarium practices and ethics that were previously published by the Society in 1958 and 1973. The recommendations and considerations...

This Online Herbaria Guide was assembled by the Plant Nomenclature & Taxonomy Community. It provides a list of herbaria for research purposes. 

During the last centuries, humans have transformed global ecosystems. With their temporal
dimension,herbaria provide the otherwise scarce long-termdata crucial for trackingecological and
evolutionarychangesover thisperiodof intense global...

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen a rapid rise in the mobilization of digital biodiversity data. This has thrust natural history museums into the forefront of biodiversity research, underscoring their central role in the...

Access and benefit-sharing (ABS) refers to the way in which genetic resources
may be accessed, and how the benefits that result from their use are shared
between the people or countries using the resources (users) and the people or...

The Cultivated Herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum, in Jamaica Plain, MA, is a component of the Herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum (A), one of the units within the Harvard University Herbaria in Cambridge, MA. The cultivated herbarium only holds those...