Available in | English |
---|---|
URL | avh |
Commercial | No |
Current status | Active |
The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH) is an online resource [1] that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. [1] [2] It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), [3] and was formed by the amalgamation of Australia's Virtual Herbarium and NZ Virtual Herbarium. [4] As of 12 August 2014, more than five million specimens of the 8 million and upwards specimens available from participating institutions have been databased. [5]
This resource is used by academics, students, and anyone interested in research in botany in Australia or New Zealand, since each record tells all that is known about the specimen: where and when it was collected; by whom; its current identification together with the botanist who identified it; and information on habitat and associated species. [1] ALA post processes the original herbarium data, giving further fields with respect to taxonomy and quality of the data. [6] When interrogating individual specimen records, the environmental overlays show reverse jackknife testing [7] [8] to see whether the specimen is an outlier with respect to the climate and other environmental layers. See e.g., MEL 0304065A (Scaevola amblyanthera).
All records are downloadable in their entirety, by anyone. [9] Examples of the use of these records may be found in
A google scholar search, using the phrase Australia's Virtual Herbarium, shows that well over 200 articles (as of 3 May 2018) have been published using data from this resource. [19]
Herbaria and their codes may be found at Wikipedia's list of herbaria which is based on the New York Botanical Garden's continuously updated index. [20]
Plans for Australia's Virtual Herbarium were announced in 2001. [21] An article by Tim Entwisle in 2003 [22] shows it still to be largely in the planning stage at that time, although the projected usages for preservation of biodiversity in western New South Wales were already visible. [22]
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
The Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) is a heritage-listed botanical garden located in Acton, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Established in 1949, the Gardens is administered by the Australian Government's Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. The botanic gardens was added to the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
In botany, a virtual herbarium is a herbarium in a digitized form. That is, it concerns a collection of digital images of preserved plants or plant parts. Virtual herbaria often are established to improve availability of specimens to a wider audience. However, there are digital herbaria that are not suitable for internet access because of the high resolution of scans and resulting large file sizes. Additional information about each specimen, such as the location, the collector, and the botanical name are attached to every specimen. Frequently, further details such as related species and growth requirements are mentioned.
The Western Australian Herbarium is the State Herbarium in Perth, Western Australia.
Normanbya is a monotypic genus of palms containing the single species Normanbya normanbyi, which is known by the common name black palm It is endemic to Queensland, Australia and is threatened by habitat destruction.
The Australian Plant Name Index (APNI) is an online database of all published names of Australian vascular plants. It covers all names, whether current names, synonyms or invalid names. It includes bibliographic and typification details, information from the Australian Plant Census including distribution by state, links to other resources such as specimen collection maps and plant photographs, and the facility for notes and comments on other aspects.
The National Herbarium of Victoria is one of Australia's earliest herbaria and the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. Its 1.5 million specimens of preserved plants, fungi and algae—collectively known as the State Botanical Collection of Victoria—comprise the largest herbarium collection in Australia and Oceania.
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is an online repository of information about Australian plants, animals, and fungi. Development started in 2006. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an organisation significantly involved in the development of the ALA. The Atlas of Living Australia is the Australian node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. The ALA is being used to help assess suitability of revegetation projects by determining species vulnerability to climatic and atmospheric change.
The Index Herbariorum provides a global directory of herbaria and their associated staff. This searchable online index allows scientists rapid access to data related to 3,400 locations where a total of 350 million botanical specimens are permanently housed. The Index Herbariorum has its own staff and website. Over time, six editions of the Index were published from 1952 to 1974. The Index became available on-line in 1997.
Charles Hugh Fawcett was an Irish-born Australian politician.
The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia, including scientific and historically significant collections and samples of Australian flora gathered by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during the voyage of HMS Endeavour in 1770.
Cuscuta australis, commonly known as Australian dodder, is a herb in the family Convolvulaceae.
Maireana pyramidata is a species of plant within the genus, Maireana, in the family Amaranthaceae. It is endemic to Australia, and widespread throughout Australia in the inland, where it is found in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Amyema melaleucae, also known as the tea-tree mistletoe, is a species of flowering plant within the genus Amyema, an epiphytic hemiparasitic plant of the family Loranthaceae native to Australia and found in Western Australia and South Australia on the coast, from north of Perth almost to the Victorian border.
Carmichaelia hollowayi, commonly known as Holloway's broom, is a species of plant in the family Fabaceae. It is found only in the South Island of New Zealand. Its conservation status (2018) is "Nationally Critical" under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.
Poa drummondiana is a perennial herb in the Poaceae family.
Vicia dennesiana is a species in the Fabaceae family, named after the solicitor and plant collector George Edgar Dennes. It is protected by the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats. This species has not been found in the wild since 1848, and is considered extinct in its natural habitat. It has not been observed in cultivation since 1922.
Josephine (Pina) Milne is an Australian bryologist, and former Manager Collections at the National Herbarium of Victoria at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
The University of Melbourne Herbarium is a teaching and research herbarium within the School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne in Parkville, Victoria, Australia. Its Index Herbariorum code is MELU.