AUSTRALIAS VIRTUAL

HERBARIUM

Peter Neish
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
 What is a Virtual Herbarium?

The physical resources and biological

information of a herbarium represented digitally

On-line access to herbaria and to botanical

information managed by herbaria

Integrated access to botanical information from

various sources in a herbarium and other
on-line biological information
 What is the AVH?

A collaborative project of the Australian

Herbarium community
Digital
Collaborative
On-line
Integrated
Partnership and shared access
Real-time access
Shared access to common authority files
Shared data-hosting, archiving and backup
Co-ownership
 Where is the AVH?

Spread across
Australian herbaria
Data distributed;
resides with custodians
Each herbarium has
a portal to receive
requests and to
deliver data
A common single
query AVH interface Major Australian Herbaria
in each herbarium
polls all herbaria
 AVH Partners

State Herbarium of National Herbarium of

South Australia Victoria

Queensland Herbarium National Herbarium of

New South Wales
Australian National
Herbarium Western Australian
Herbarium
Northern Territory
Herbarium Australian Biological
Resources Study
Tasmanian Herbarium

Industry Partner:
KE Software
 Why is there an AVH?

Pressure on Herbaria to work more efficiently

Demand for access to larger amounts of data

Demand to access data more quickly

Demand to view data in different ways

Pressure on herbaria to appear and to be more

responsive to community needs
 Potential users of the AVH

The participating herbaria have access to all the

data at the highest precision
Public access filter restricts access to work in
progress, sensitive locality data, etc.
Research and education
Public general interest
Access to conservation agencies, land
managers, environmental decision makers
 There are problems

> 20,000 species of higher plants

> 64,000 available names
Extensive synonymy (4 names per plant)
Many alternative taxonomic concepts

8 major government-funded herbaria

Similar number of university herbaria

> 6,500,000 specimens in Aust. herbaria

50-100 data elements per specimen
Several Kb per specimen (excl. images)
Specimen data from major herbaria
Herbarium database status
at start of AVH project
 The AVH Agreement

$10M over 5 years to database all major Australian

herbarium collections

$10 million: - $ 4 million Commonwealth

- $ 4 million State/Territory
- $ 2 million private

Initial focus on capture of herbarium specimen data

Ultimate aim is a complete flora information system

 Specimen data
Core information is from herbarium specimens

Collections data:
Scientific name
Collection date
Collector name & number
Location
Soils
Habitat (incl. topography)
Vegetation community
Associated species
Plant features, e.g. colour
http://www.chah.gov.au/avh/
Acacia
salicina
 Related Products

On-line Flora information systems

Generally regionally based

Integrating:
Plant names
Descriptive Flora treatments
Illustrations
Distributions
Botanical Literature
 A Flora in XML
Example in HTML
<p><b>Platyzoma
microphyllum</b> R.Br.,
<i>Prodr.</i> 160 (1810)</p>
<p ><i>Gleichenia platyzoma</i>
F.Muell., <i>Veg. Chatham.-Isl.</i>
63 (1864). T: Facing Island, Qld,
<i>R.Brown Iter Austral. 102</i> ;
lecto: BM.</p>
<p>Illus.: S.B.Andrews</p>
<p>Rhizome short-creeping
Sporangia in zones in distal half of
frond. Fig. 55</p>
<p>Widespread across northern
Australia Grows in sandy or
swampy soils.... Map 135.</p>
<p>W.A.: 14.4 km NW of Mt
</p>
Example in XML
<taxon><name>Platyzoma microphyllum</name>
<author>R.Br</author>,
<publication><title>Prodr.</title>
<page>160</page><date>1810</date>
</publication>
<synonym> <name>Gleichenia platyzoma</name>
<author> F.Muell. </author><publication>Veg.
Chatham.-Isl.</publication> <page>63<page>
<date>1864</date> <type>T: Facing Island, Qld,
</type></synonym>
<illustration>Illus.: S.B.Andrews</illustration>
<description>Rhizome short-creeping Sporangia
in zones in distal half of frond. </description>
<figure> Fig. 55 </figure>
<locality>Widespread across northern Australia
</locality><habitat>Grows in sandy or swampy
soils...</habitat> <map>Map 135.</map>
<specimens>W.A.: 14.4 km NW of Mt
</specimens></taxon>
Flora Information Systems
Botanical illustrations
 Portraits of Plant species

National Plant
Photograph Index
Search on-line
Some digital images
available
35,000 images of
Australian plants
and vegetation

www.anbg.gov.au/anbg/photo-collection/
Type Images on demand

High resolution image of

type specimen of Austrobaileya
downloaded over the Internet
from the Herbarium of the
New York Botanical Garden
Interactive Plant Identification
Invasive Plant Notification
 Trends in Biodiverssity
Information Management
Regional Global
Text-based Image-based
Taxon-based Spatially-based
Individual effort Partnerships
Single user Multiuser
Standalone Networked
Centralized Distributed
Proprietary System Open System
Idiosyncratic Design Standard Architecture
Nonstandard data content Standard data content
Conventional Innovative
Developmental Stable
Access charges Freely available
 Acknowledgements

State Herbarium of National Herbarium of

South Australia Victoria

Queensland Herbarium National Herbarium of

New South Wales
Australian National
Herbarium Western Australian
Herbarium
Northern Territory
Herbarium Australian Biological
Resources Study
Tasmanian Herbarium
Jim Croft for slides
Industry Partner:
KE Software