Abstract Detail

Botanical History

A lockdown glimpse inside the Cambridge University Herbarium: an overlooked botanical treasure trove.

Containing some 1.1. million plant specimens, including those made by Charles Darwin on the Voyage of the Beagle, the Cambridge University Herbarium (CGE) has a rich history of over 300 years of plant collection, inventory, production of taxonomic literature, and teaching of botany.
Collections made by some of the great British (and non-British) botanists including Alfred Russel Wallace, Nathaniel Wallich, and Richard Spruce have come to CGE directly from the collectors or via the incorporation of many important collections over the last three centuries. Over its history, the Herbarium has experienced various stages of evolution, expansion, changing research focuses, and threats, and during the last 100 years it was particularly important in European and British taxonomy and floristics.
These historic specimens represent a treasure trove of unstudied material and are especially rich in nomenclatural type specimens, but currently the collections are relatively poorly known and have virtually no visibility outside the physical building in which they are housed. In an era of collections digitisation and interdisciplinary research, and now with the first full Curator in post in a decade, the potential to open this Herbarium up via collaborative research, teaching, and engagement is huge.
This poster presents an overview of the history and contents of the collection, aiming to raise awareness of their existence.

1 - Cambridge University Herbarium (CGE), Department of Plant Sciences, Cambridge University, c/o Sainsbury Laboratory, Bateman Street, Cambridge, CB2 1LR, UK

Keywords:
Herbarium
Herbaria
collections
type specimens
Biodiversity
Darwin
Lindley
Wallich
Spruce
Rackham
Wallace
new species.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Botanical History Posters
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2020
Time: 5:00 PM Time and date to be determined
Number: PBH001
Abstract ID:774
Candidate for Awards:None