Monday, February 3, 2014

2 Million Herbarium Specimen Records for California


Continued efforts to database California vascular plant records in herbaria have narrowed in on the 2-million mark.  As of 31 January 2014, the Consortium of California Herbaria offer up 1,909,005 records.  Major non CCH records are: Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria 29,142 records, and MO-Tropicos 33,098 records.  

A total of 1971,246 specimen records.

Since 2006, the addition of records to the CCH database has averaged 480 records per day, and is trending upwards.  Hard to keep up with...

Taxonomic and floristic studies of the California flora are now greatly facilitated by these riches of data.  The challenge now is not so much data acquisition, but is rather data analysis.  Differences between data providers contributing to CCH need to be standardized.  Nomenclature, which generally reflects the “as filed” taxon name for each specimen, needs attention.   Many CCH data providers use different formats for date, different names for collectors, many have missing data such as the collection number.   Maturation of the herbarium specimen data for California is awaited with baited breath...







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