Halfway point reached! 5 million herbarium & fungarium specimens now digitised

A major milestone   

It's sometimes difficult to visualise just how many specimens have been sifted through when reaching this milestone. 

To put it into perspective, if you were to line up all five million digitised specimens end-to-end, they would stretch the entire length of the UK twice! 

With this in mind, reaching this milestone is a significant achievement. However, it's the largely untapped potential that this project holds and the impact it's already having that is the greatest cause for celebration. 

As our Deputy Director of Science Research Dr Paul Kersey highlighted:  

"What is most exciting is that we're already realising the impact of this work with researchers actively using our digitised collections to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our planet today, including a large conservation project to protect endangered species in the British Virgin Islands. We can safely assume that the impact of unlocking our entire collection of over eight million herbarium and fungarium specimens will be immense." 

 This incredible achievement is a testament to the hard work of over 320 staff and volunteers. Thanks to their dedication, one of the world's largest collections of dried plants and fungi is becoming accessible online for researchers and enthusiasts around the globe. 

What's currently accessible? 

As of June 2024, you can now access the following number of specimens via GBIF and our Data Portal:

• GBIF - 2.16 million specimens available (including herbarium and fungarium collections)
• Data Portal - 1.45 million specimens available (including herbarium and fungarium collections) 

Going global to combat global challenges 

This digital repository will provide invaluable insights into critical environmental issues, including: 

• Mapping extinction risks: Identify species facing extinction threats. 
• Understanding climate change: Analyse the potential impact of climate change on ecosystems and food security. 

Ultimately, these digitised collections will be a powerful tool for: 

• Future-proofing agriculture 
• Saving species from extinction 
• Ensuring food security 
• Combatting biodiversity loss and climate change 

Treasures from the past, accessible for the future 

These specimens don’t exist just to be examined; they can also provide tangible solutions.  As detailed in a recent short film, herbarium specimens can be used to identify historically resilient plant populations that thrive in harsher, hotter climates. 

By studying certain wild plants, we can identify species with valuable traits such as drought tolerance. These traits can then be bred into our food crops through selective breeding, ensuring they continue to produce good yields even in drier conditions. 

Alternatively, crop relatives can be grown which are better adapted to the changing conditions. 

Here's the short, animated film featuring our Head of Collections Dr Alan Paton that illustrates this: