The New York Botanical Garden International Plant Science Center
Science Home ... Virtual Herbarium ... Showcase


The C. V. Starr
Virtual Herbarium


A Summary of Databasing Projects

A Guide for the Use of The C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium

Acknowledgements

Specimen Showcases

The C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium links the data that accompanies an herbarium specimen with information about the species, about the people who collected, named, and determined it, and the publication where the species was first described. Additionally, an unlimited number of multimedia attachments in the form of images, documents, video, or links to other websites can be attached to each record. The Virtual Herbarium Users guide describes in more detail how this information is organized.

Adding such supplemental information to the database record for an herbarium specimen not only makes it's story more complete, but also allows the record to serve as repository for (or link to) data and analyses derived from it. For example, a specimen record might contain images of the plant in the living condition, of the dried specimen, scanning electron micrographs of pollen or spores, notes from the collector's fieldbook, links to gene sequences derived from that are stored in GenBank, links to publications where the specimen is described or cited, and to the conservation status of the species.

The Virtual Herbarium obtained the capability to create fully augmented records in 2004; the first Virtual Herbarium project to be charged with creating such records is the Macrofungi Type Specimen Catalog. However, our goal is augment records in all Virtual Herbarium projects, as time and funds permit.

The Showcases listed below are sets of records from our various databasing projects that have been augmented to serve as examples of the type of supplemental data that are available.


The C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium Showcase

Amazonian Showcase

Central America Showcase

Science Exhibit Specimen Showcase

Puerto Rico Showcase

Switchgrass Showcase

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
NYBG Home  |  Science Home  |  About Us  |  Site Map  |  Participate  |  Contact Us
© 2007 The New York Botanical Garden  |  Photo Credits
Terms of Use  |  We welcome your feedback and suggestions.