Vascular plants herbarium 2019–2021

Project objective

By the end of the project it is intended that

1. a full inventory of the diatom collection will have been made;
2. all (approximately 150,000) herbarium records of the canton of Valais will have been digitised and made freely accessible online;
3. all (approximately 12,000) herbarium records from the personal papers of Gilbert Bocquet will have been prepared and digitised.

Description of the project

This project is comprised of three subprojects:

1. The creation of a complete inventory of the vascular plant collection in order to collect detailed information on holdings that have not yet been digitised.
2. The digitisation of approximately 150,000 records of around 1,800 species from the canton of Valais, as well as the cooperative transcription and georeferencing of the label information via a proprietary citizen science platform.
3. The mounting and digitisation of the remaining 12,000 records from the personal papers of former ETH curator Gilbert Bocquet.

Synergies and context

1. Creating an inventory for the herbarium creates the conditions for the reorganisation of the collection and provides the foundations for the further planning of our project-based digitisation strategy.
2. With the indexing of the Valais records, historical data for the external page ongoing mapping of this canton will be made available. This data will offer an insight into the changes in geographic distribution of endangered and invasive species over time.
3. The preparation of herbarium records is the first step towards indexing a collection to allow other researchers to work with the material, some of which is from species that are yet to be identified.

Time frame

July 2019 to June 2021

Results

1. A total of almost 125,000 binomials were recorded together with information on volumes and published on the external page website of the Zurich United Herbaria Z + ZT.
2. A total of around 85,000 records for 2,150 taxa were located in our collection and digitised, and over 35,000 records for more than 700 species were transcribed, georeferenced and made freely accessible online via the external page Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
3. A total of 4,500 of Gilbert Bocquet’s records from Corsica were digitised and added to the main collection, and more than 6,500 of his records from the Mediterranean region were mounted and photographed.