Strengthening Partnerships to Safeguard the Future of Herbaria

Abstract

Herbaria remain the primary means of documenting plant life on earth, and the number of herbaria worldwide and the number of specimens they hold continues to grow. Digitization of herbarium specimens, though far from complete, has increased the discoverability of herbarium holdings and has increased the range of studies from which data from herbarium specimens can be used. The rather large number of herbaria about which no current information is available is a source of concern, as is herbarium consolidation and removal of herbaria to offsite storage facilities. Partnerships are key to the future health of herbaria. Benefits could accrue from the reimagining of the world’s herbaria as a global resource rather than a collection of independent, often competing institutions. Herbaria can extend the reach of their specimens by joining the nascent effort to link the species occurrence data they manage to other biological and environmental data sources to deepen our ability to understand the interrelationships of earth’s biota. To assure that data held by herbaria contribute to the range of conservation-related projects for which they are relevant, herbaria should embrace the tenets of Team Science and play a more proactive role in promoting their holdings for relevant research and conservation projects.

Plants of Conservation Interest in a Protected Area: A Case Study of the Gran Sasso and Monti Della Laga National Park (Central Italy)

“…Some populations of Allium permixtum Guss., Buphthalmum salicifolium L. subsp. salicifolium , Diphasiastrum complanatum (L.) Holub, whose occurrences in the Park’s territory are due to the existence of old herbarium specimens housed in APP, CAME, and FI [ 30 ], were not found during field activities. For all the monitored populations, data concerning the species’ localization, population size, and threats and pressures were collected.…”

Herbarium Apenninicum (APP): An Archive of Vascular Plants from Central Italy

“…The herbaria are the primary means of documenting plant diversity on earth, and they currently assume a fundamental role in the study of genomics and climate change outcomes, detected by monitoring plant distribution over time [1,2]. They have always constituted a key information basis for other more traditional and consolidated fields of study, such as systematics and taxonomy, floristics and phytogeography, ecology, ethnobotany, the history of botany and biodiversity conservation, beyond their educational and cultural meaning, e.g., [3][4][5][6].…”

“…They have always constituted a key information basis for other more traditional and consolidated fields of study, such as systematics and taxonomy, floristics and phytogeography, ecology, ethnobotany, the history of botany and biodiversity conservation, beyond their educational and cultural meaning, e.g., [3][4][5][6]. Currently, around 396 million specimens are kept in 3567 active herbaria [1]. Furthermore, a discussion has recently opened on the concrete possibility of resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants (de-extinction) from herbaria [7,8].…”

Bryophytes Collection of the University of Brasilia Herbarium, Brazil

“…Their significance lies in their role as invaluable reservoirs of data documenting Earth's plant diversity, playing a fundamental role in the study of genomics and the impacts of climate change. Herbaria also house nomenclatural types, making them essential for studies focusing on threatened species and for documenting existing taxa [2].…”