Digital Herbarium - NGCPR

Study Extent

The NGCPR Digital Herbarium project was aimed at developing herbarium followed by digitization. Under this project plant specimens were collected from various locations in the natural habitats from the Western Ghats, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and other parts of India. A total of 1994 herbarium specimens were developed and digitized covering 12 states, one union territory and one island.

Sampling

Plant specimens were collected from various locations in India. During the collection, information such as plant scientific name, place of collection, date, collectors name and collection number were recorded in the field record books. These specimens were then dried and mounted on herbarium sheet after which details were entered in the herbarium specimen sheets. A barcode with unique ID number was provided to each herbarium specimen. For the digitization process, the barcoded herbarium specimens were scanned using a camera and high resolution images were stored as digital herbarium.

Quality Control

The identification of plant specimens was conducted with the help of literature review of flora, illustrations, photographs, comparison with properly identified herbarium specimens, and consultation with taxonomists and herbarium experts. While preparing the herbarium care was taken to ensure that the plant specimens collected in the field included flowers, fruits and portions of the uninfected stem with leaves.

Method steps

1. Plant specimens were collected from various locations in India. During the collection, information such as plant scientific name, place of collection, date, collectors name and collection number were recorded in the field record books. These specimens were then dried and mounted on herbarium sheet after which details were entered in the herbarium specimen sheets. A barcode with unique ID number was provided to each herbarium specimen. For the digitization process, the barcoded herbarium specimens were scanned using a camera and high resolution images were stored as digital herbarium.

The digital database repository contains a total of 1994 herbarium specimens consisting of 277 genera belonging to 91 family from 34 order under 2 classes Liliopsida and Magnoliopsida described under phylum Tracheophyta and kingdom Plantae.

1. Plantae
   common name: Plants rank: kingdom

The plant specimens used for developing digital herbarium is collected from various locations across India. The geographic coverage includes 12 states (Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Tamilnadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal), one union territory (Puducherry) and one island (Andaman and Nicobar).