Learn about all things Public Garden – the quarterly journal of the American Public Gardens Association produced by Association members for Association members. 

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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...

For more than two centuries, biodiversity collections have served as the foundation for scientific investigation of and education about life on Earth. The collections that have been assembled in
the past and continue to grow today are a...

The North American crop wild relatives (CWR) of lettuce (Lactuca L.) represent an underexplored
pool of genetic diversity of potential value to breeding programs.  In this review, we examine the role of herbarium and genebank holdings in...

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...

Predicting the flowering times of angiosperm taxa is a goal of mounting importance in the face of future climate change, with applications not only in plant biology and ecology, but also horticulture, agriculture, and invasive species management. To...

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,...

The Plant Phenology Ontology (PPO) was originally developed to integrate phenology observations of whole plants across different global observation networks. Here we describe a new release of the PPO and associated data pipelines that supports...

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...