Digitising botanical collections: a pilot for an Open Herbarium

The high speed digitisation of herbarium sheets was developed in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBGK) and Picturae.

This was a pilot project for an unprecentented plan to digitise millions of plant specimens from both our collections.

Collectively our two institutions hold over 11 million specimens, an unparalleled resource for studying plant diversity worldwide.

The digitisation conveyor belt for botanical specimens in action

Method

We used state-of-the-art high-speed conveyor-belt imaging technology in collaboration with a commercial provider (Picturae) to create images of herbarium sheets.

We tested workflows and develop a long term method for UK herbarium digitisation using a relatively small selection of material from both institutions – totalling 70,000 specimens.

We also transcribed the data labels from each of the specimens to mobilise data for scientific research.

Open Herbarium

Building on the successful pilot of the conveyor-based workflows, we are now developing a plan to create a digital ‘Open Herbarium’: a unique, large scale record of plant diversity.

Research

Digitised collections are being used to answer important questions for science and society.

Researchers at Kew and the Museum are using the digital records of the 70,000 plants to investigate

• how species look different in different environments
• how they respond to environmental stress
• the conservation status of plant species worldwide

Solanum (nightshade)

Solanum (nightshade) images will be used to

• track leaf shape and size changes within species in relation to environment, especially in relation to El Niño years on the west coast of South America 
• to look at the variability in size and shape of leaves in eggplant wild relatives in Asia.

Both institutions are using data on distribution from transcribed labels to assess the conservation status of plant species in these groups worldwide.