Living Prairie Museum Manitoba Herbarium (LPMMBH)

Study Extent

Digitization of vascular plant specimens from the Herbarium of the Living Prairie Museum.

Sampling

Data is manually digitized as text from specimen labels. Specimens are taken after georeference data, habitat data, and date is recorded. Specimens are given a tentative identification in field and a more rigorous identification at the herbarium using Scoggan's 1957 Flora of Manitoba and the online Flora of North America. Scientific names and authors are verified using ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System.

Quality Control

Data from old specimens were formatted to fit the new database structure (Darwin Core). Inconsistencies were corrected systematically for determinations and geography data. New, unique accession numbers were assigned to old specimens and inaccurate georeferenced data were corrected. New specimens are numbered and data on each specimen is recorded with correlating accession numbers. Specimens are validated before databasing to ensure identification accuracy.

Method steps

1. Examine specimen and annotation labels. Verify and update determination if qualified. Search specimen record in collection database and update where necessary, or create new record and populate fields with the information on the specimen label. Assign a unique accession number to the specimen.
2. Record specimen data in a related table. Verify locality provided on specimen labels with online databases to ensure quality of geographic data. Georeferences provided on labels are validated using online maps (Google Maps) and corrected at need, with the addition of a measure of inaccuracy.

This dataset includes all digitized vascular plants in the collection. The top three families are Asteraceae (21%), Fabaceae (13%), and Poaceae (13%).

1. Plantae
   common name: Plants rank: kingdom
2. Viridiplantae
   rank: subkingdom
3. Embryophyta
   rank: superphylum
4. Teacheophyta
   common name: Vascular Plants rank: phylum

Most specimens were found within the city of Winnipeg.