LWS herbarium. Vascular plants

Study Extent

The study includes the specimens of vascular plants deposited at the herbarium LWS of the State Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine that were selected as prioritized for digitization to avoid the loss of data due to possible hostilities or supporting factors negatively affecting the preservation of these the most important specimens. It mostly covers species and infraspecies of rare and relict vascular plants distributed in the western part of Ukraine and the specimens collected in 1852-2014 that were not digitized before. The study was realized in 2023 and will be continued in 2024.

Sampling

The specimens of vascular plants deposited at the herbarium LWS were selected using the preliminary created nomenclatural checklist. From this checklist, the taxa that were already digitized were excluded. The most essential taxa, i.e., rare and relict, representing the local flora of the western part of Ukraine, were selected and prioritized for digitization. After that, the photos of their labels were made, and data from these photos were databases. The databased specimens were further processed and photographed.

Quality Control

The data were checked manually using MS Excel and then additionally checked using OpenRefine software.

Method steps

1. The initial nomenclatural checklist has been created and contains 530 species and infraspecific plant taxa listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, IUCN Red List. It also covered the taxa mentioned as relict and occurring in the western part of Ukraine in the limit of their natural range. After that, this checklist was cross-checked and verified using the POWO and Plants of the World databases and supported by current taxonomy. After that herbarium herbarium specimens of the LWS herbarium that were not digitized before were selected using this initial checklist (including valid names and synonyms). The labels of selected taxa were photographed and the data from these photos were manually extracted to the Excel-based database. Then the data from captured labels were preliminary cleaned and georeferenced using OpenStreetMap. The quality of the final database was manually checked and then it was processed through the OpenRefine, and saved as a tsv file coded in UTF-8. This file has been uploaded to GBIF through the IPT of the State Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

1. Plantae
   rank: kingdom

The dataset mainly covers the western part of Ukraine.