Historical Herbaria Research Articles

Database and Digitization of Regional Historical Herbaria: A Case Study of Margittai Collection in the Uzhhorod National University Herbarium (UU)

The digitization of herbarium collections guarantees a preservation and long-term use of scientifically valuable objects, e.g., wide and convenient access to these materials online and exchange between institutions. These are also important elements in the education and popularization of botanical knowledge. No less significant is the practical aspect of these studies due to the danger of these collections’ destruction as a result of Russian aggression—some of them have already been destroyed. The analyzed Margittai collection (1500 specimens) is kept at the Uzhhorod National University Herbarium (UU) and belongs to the historical and regional ones. This material is valuable because of its scientific, historical and cultural significance. By the initiative and thanks to the efforts of Prof. S. Fodor, the studied collection (most of which are doublet specimens) was transferred in 1965 from the Hungarian Natural History Museum (BP), where the main herbarium of the researcher is preserved (40,000 specimens), to the Uzhhorod State University. Due to the fact that the collection has not been studied, in 2021, the authors began a special investigation of this collection and assessment of its current state. The structure of the database has been developed, it is being filled, and the digitization of type materials has begun.

The Trèmols Herbarium: A European Herbarium from the End of the 19th Century

The herbarium Trèmols, preserved in the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB), was created during the second half of the 19th century by the Catalan chemist and botanist Frederic Trèmols Borrell (Cadaqués 1831–1900). He was a member of important scientific institutions, including the Real Acadèmia de Ciències i Arts de Barcelona, the Societat Botànica Barcelonesa, the Société Botanique de France, and the Société Helvétique pour l’Échange des Plantes. The value of this herbarium lies in the large volume of specimens that it preserves (12,953) and the high percentage (61.9%) of material of foreign origin that it contains. The Trèmols herbarium was completely digitised in 2019 as part of a wider study that is aimed to classify, digitise, document, review, and, finally, make the IBB historical herbaria available to the scientific community. Herein, we provide a general overview of the almost 13,000 specimens of this collection, which can give valuable insight into the flora that existed more than 100 years ago.

Long-lasting flavor compounds of myrtle and immortelle from ancient Egyptian tombs: A study by analytical pyrolysis

In this work, an approach based on evolved gas analysis-mass spectrometry and double-shot analytical pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was employed to investigate the low and high molecular weight fractions of two aromatic plants, myrtle and immortelle. The method was used to investigate myrtle and immortelle plants from historical herbaria, as well as archaeological samples from garlands found in ancient Egyptian tombs. Analytical pyrolysis allowed us to characterize both the volatile and non-volatile fractions, by sequentially performing a thermal desorption step and a pyrolysis step on the same sample. Volatile components ascribable to the flavor of myrtle and immortelle were detected in the first-shot chromatograms of all samples. These compounds included mono/sesquiterpenoids such as pinene and eucalyptol, and small phenols such as catechol and syringol. The results show that a portion of the volatile compounds of these plants can remain trapped in the lignocellulosic matrix for long times, and that double-shot Py-GC/MS can provide information on the volatile fraction of even archaeological plant samples.

The book herbaria of Jacob Breyne (1637–1697) in the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Leiden, the Netherlands)

Historic herbaria can provide a wealth of information on a diversity of topics, including the past occurrence of plants, their abundance, names and uses. However,16th and 17th century herbaria are rare and very fragile, and can best be studied after digitization. The collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands, contains two book herbaria by Jacob Breyne (1637–1697) of Danzig (presently Gdańsk, Poland). These herbaria, dated 1659 and 1673, contain a total of 105 specimens in various states of intactness, and with or without original labels. The identity of the specimens in the Leiden Breyne herbaria was not completely assessed previously. Here we discuss the taxa represented within these two historic herbaria as well as the information contained in the handwritten texts with in them. The two Breyne herbaria combined were found to contain 62 species, representing 24 plant families. Both herbaria contain several species now rare around Gdańsk, including two species currently considered regionally extinct (Swertia perennis (Gentianaceae) and Dactylorhiza viridis (Orchidaceae)). Labels with the specimens give a range of information on the collecting locations, ecology, abundance and/or use of the species. The Leiden Breyne herbaria reveal changes in the flora of northern Poland over the course of three centuries, as well as pre-Linnaean nomenclature, historic uses of plants and international correspondence between scientists.

Tracing the invasion of a leaf-mining moth in the Palearctic through DNA barcoding of historical herbaria

The lime leaf-miner, Phyllonorycter issikii is an invasive micromoth with an unusually higher number of haplotypes in the invaded area (Europe, Western Siberia) compared to its putative native region (East Asia). The origin of the genetic diversity in the neocolonized region remains unclear. We surveyed over 15 thousand herbarium specimens of lime trees (Tilia spp.) collected across the Palearctic over a period of 252 years (1764–2016) looking for preserved larvae within the archival leaf mines. We found 203 herbarium specimens with leaf mines of Ph. issikii collected in East Asia, one of them dating back to 1830, i.e. 133 years before the description of the species. In contrast, only 22 herbarium specimens collected in the West Palearctic in the last three decades (1987–2015) carried leaf mines. DNA barcoding of archival specimens revealed 32 haplotypes out of which 23 were novel (not known from modern populations) and found exclusively in East Asia. Six haplotypes are shared between both native and invaded areas and only two were responsible for the recent invasion of the Western Palearctic. The remarkable number of newly discovered haplotypes in archival populations supports East Asia as the native region and the source area of invasion.

Variability in ITS1 and ITS2 sequences of historic herbaria and extant (fresh) Phalaris species (Poaceae)

BackgroundPhalaris species (Poaceae) occupy diverse environments throughout all continents except Antarctica. Phalaris arundinacea is an important forage, ornamental, wetland restoration and biofuel crop grown globally as well as being a wetland invasive. The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region has been used for Phalaris barcoding as a DNA region with high nucleotide diversity for Phalaris species identification. Recent findings that P. arundinacea populations in Minnesota USA are most likely native and not European prompted this analysis to determine whether Eurasian vs. native North American P. arundinacea differed in ITS regions. Our objectives were to amplify and compare ITS regions (ITS1 and ITS2) of historic herbaria (1882–2001) and extant (fresh) Phalaris specimens; analyze ITS regions for species-specific polymorphisms (diagnostic SNPs) and compare ITS regions of historic Phalaris specimens with known, extant Phalaris species.ResultsWe obtained complete ITS1 and ITS2 sequences from 31 Phalaris historic (herbaria samples, 1908 to 2001) and five extant (fresh) specimens. Herbaria Phalaris specimens did not produce new SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) not present in extant specimens. Diagnostic SNPs were identified in 8/12 (66.6%) Phalaris species. This study demonstrates the use of herbaria tissue for barcoding as a means for improved species identification of Phalaris herbaria specimens. No significant correlation between specimen age and genomic DNA concentration was found. Phalaris arundinacea showed high SNP variation within its clade, with the North American being distinctly different than other USA and most Eurasian types, potentially allowing for future identification of specific SNPs to geographic origin.ConclusionsWhile not as efficient as extant specimens to obtain DNA, Phalaris herbaria specimens can produce high quality ITS sequences to evaluate historic genetic resources and facilitate identification of new species-specific barcodes. No correlation between DNA concentration and age of historic samples (119 year range) occurred. Considerable polymorphism was exhibited in the P. arundinacea clade with several N. American accessions being distinct from Eurasian types. Further development of within species- and genus-specific barcodes could contribute to designing PCR primers for efficient and accurate identification of N. American P. arundinacea. Our finding of misidentified Phalaris species indicates the need to exercise stringent quality control measures on newly generated sequence data and to approach public sequence databases in a critical way.

Species Detection and Segmentation of Multi-specimen Historical Herbaria

Historically, herbarium specimens have provided users with documented occurrences of plants in specific locations over time. Herbarium collections have therefore been the basis of systematic botany for centuries (Younis et al. 2020). According to the latest summary report based on the data from Index Herbariorum, there are around 3400 active herbaria in the world containing 397 million specimens that are spread across 182 countries (Thiers 2021). Exponential growth in high quality image capturing devices induced by the enormous amount of uncovered collections has further led to rising interest in large scale digitization initiatives across the world (Le Bras et al. 2017). As herbarium specimens are increasingly becoming digitised and accessible in online repositories, an important need has also emerged to develop automated tools to process and enrich these collections to facilitate better access to the preserved archives. This rising number of digitised herbarium sheets provides an opportunity to employ computer-based image processing techniques, such as deep learning, to automatically identify species and higher taxa (Carranza-Rojas and Joly 2018, Carranza-Rojas et al. 2017, Younis et al. 2020) or to extract other useful information from the herbaria sheets, such as detecting handwritten text, color bars, scales and barcodes. The species identification task works well for herbarium sheets that have only one species in a page. However, there are many herbarium books that have multiple species on the same page (as shown in Fig. 1) for which the complexity of the identification problem increases tremendously. It also involves a great deal of time and effort if they are to be enriched manually. In this work, we propose a pipeline that can automatically detect, identify, and enrich plant species in multi-specimen herbaria. The core idea of the pipeline is to detect unique plant species and handwritten text around the plant species and map the text to the correct plant species. As shown in Fig. 2, the proposed pipeline begins with the pre-processing of the images. The images are rotated and aligned such that the longest edge is maintained as its height. In the case of herbarium books, the pages are detected and morphological transformations are performed to reduce occlusions (Thirukokaranam Chandrasekar and Verstockt 2020). A YOLOv3 (You Only Look Once version 3) object detection model (Zhao and Li 2020) is trained from scratch to detect plants and text. The model was trained on a dataset of single species herbarium sheets with a mosaic augmentation technique to extend the plants model to detect multiple species. The first results of the training shows impressive results although it could be further improved with more labelled data. We also plan to train an object segmentation model and contrast its performance with the plant detection model for multi-specimen herbarium sheets. After detecting both the plants and the text, the text will be recognized with a state-of-the-art handwritten text recognition (HTR) model. The recognized text can then be matched with a database of specimens, to identify each detected specimen. Furthermore, additional textual metadata (e.g. date, locality, collector's name, institution) visible on the sheet will be recognized and used to enrich the collection.

Riparian populations of minnesota reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) are most likely native, based on SNPs (DArTseqLD)

The native vs. exotic status of reed canarygrass (RCG), a major invasive species of Minnesota wetlands, is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate this native vs. exotic status to enhance its management. Genetic comparison of wild RCG populations from six Minnesota and six Czech Republic rivers was performed. A total of 2521 polymorphic SNP markers (single nucleotide polymorphisms) were used to evaluate 478 RCG samples across all collections. In the PCoA, all (n = 256) tested extant wild, riparian RCG genotypes from six Minnesota Rivers and six Czech Republic Rivers were genetically distinct, although some SNPs were common in both populations since they are the same species. DAPC analysis also resulted in the formation of two primary clusters separating the Minnesota Rivers and Czech Republic Rivers riparian samples, with little overlap; STRUCTURE analysis also supported this clustering with k = 4 groups as it separated the Czech Republic Rivers populations into three groups, along with Minnesota Rivers. The uniformity of PCoA, DAPC, STRUCTURE, and Evanno results indicates the distinct separation of Minnesota Rivers and Czech Republic Rivers populations. Portions of the genome (specific SNPs) are preserved or in common across continents, as indicated by STRUCTURE similarities. Nonetheless, overall significant SNP differences between the continents indicate that the Minnesota riparian populations are distinct enough from the European (Czech) collections to be delineated as native N. American RCG. PCoA of all the Minnesota RCG collections clustered Minnesota Rivers, Herbarium, Extant Herbarium, Research Field and Native Field collections together. STRUCTURE analysis (k = 2; Evanno) divided these Minnesota collections from the Commercial Field and Cultivars collections. There are two genetically distinct groups of RCG in Minnesota and since the Minnesota Rivers, the Research Field, the Native Field and pre-1930 herbaria collections clustered together, they are most likely native N. American types. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that the genetic variation was more significant within, rather than among, the RCG populations. Native, historic herbaria types cluster together with all wild RCG river populations in Minnesota, all of which were distinct from those in Central Europe, suggesting native RCG type persistence in N. America. Also, cultivated forage types of RCG are distinct from wild RCG Minnesota river populations. The SNP genetic data shows that riparian Minnesota RCG populations are native. These data will facilitate future management strategies to control RCG as a native, but invasive, species.

Sensing and Presencing Rare Plants through Contemporary Drawing Practice

Navigating through three distinct sites of knowledge – the seventeenth-century treatise on Malabar’s plants, Hortus Malabaricus; historical herbaria; and protected areas of remote forests and coastal regions of Kerala – the project will stimulate innovative modes of drawing through considerations relating to the collection and preservation of rare plants. Generating a distinctive body of artworks at world-leading plant science research facilities and in the bio-diverse South Indian rainforest, the research asks: can drawing represent the vulnerabilities and resilience of rare plants, not through illustration and gathering information by creating marks on a substrate, but as a material phenomenon that can generate new knowledge?

Adhesives and the Herbarium: International Survey and Application of the Results in Analysis of the Influence of Conservation Materials on DNA of Herbarium Specimens

In 2017 the author conducted an international survey among the conservators who have worked with herbaria collections, particularly paper conservators who treated historic herbaria. During the survey the author contacted 25 people from 9 countries. The participants were the conservators who either shared their experience through publications or whose conservation reports were available to the author. Participants were asked to recommend materials used in the conservation of historic herbaria and materials used on a daily basis to mount specimens. The aim of the survey was to list the materials that have direct contact with the surface of the specimens. Therefore the results concentrated mostly on adhesives. Acknowledging that materials recommended for conservation treatment may differ from those used for a typical mounting of a modern specimen, the author presented a traditional conservator’s approach that every modern object (including herbaria) may one day become a valuable part of heritage. This means that all materials used when working with herbaria should be reversible and DNA-safe. The survey revealed that most conservators recommend materials that are very popular in paper conservation: wheat starch paste and methylcellulose at different concentrations, however some suggested using animal glues such as gelatine or isinglass and mixtures of isinglass and starch paste. Other adhesives that were present in the results were two versions of hydroxypropylcellulose, Klucel G and Klucel E, rice starch, shofu, and different PVAs used for mounting (e.g. Hewit M218 and Jade 403). Many conservators expressed their negative approach to popular mounting materials and techniques of mounting by overall adhesion. The survey was a part of the project "Heritage preservation and ethnobotany. Analysis of the influence of conservation treatment on genetic material comprised in historic herbaria“ (project no. 2014/13/N/HS2/03118) funded by the National Science Centre in Poland. The results of the survey served as a basis for the next stage of the project, which was testing samples of herbarium specimens, 'treated' with the chosen materials, for the possible damaging influence on the DNA of specimens. The choice of materials based on the results of the survey, literature and availability of materials (some adhesives used for mounting some decades ago are no longer available). The herbarium samples were made of Arabidopsis thaliana and Fragaria vesca leaves, prepared for the project. After drying and 'treating' with conservation and mounting materials, the samples were artificially aged in a climatic chamber to imitate deterioration processes.

Scanning Electron Microscopy as a Tool to Observe the Effects of Simulated Conservation Treatment on Herbarium Specimens

This paper presents the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observations conducted for the project "Heritage preservation and ethnobotany. Analysis of the influence of conservation treatment on genetic material comprised in historic herbaria“ (project no. 2014/13/N/HS2/03118) funded by the National Science Centre in Poland. The main aim of the project is to establish if treatment methods used by herbarium conservators and mounters in different countries are harmful for the DNA material comprised in herbarium specimens. In order to analyse this problem the author conducted an international survey among specialists with documented experience in herbarium treatment. The next step was the evaluation of the results and the choice of materials. The chosen materials were then applied to samples of herbarium specimens, artificially aged in the climatic chamber, and subjected to DNA analysis. The results of the survey illustrated the variety of the materials used to treat and mount specimens. Some of them, such as methyl cellulose, were used in different concentrations and different degrees of polymerization. The project limitations determined the selection of materials for further testing, particularly when it comes to the concentration of a particular adhesive/consolidant. At the same time the main assumption was to identify versions of the material that can effectively penetrate the specimen in order to intensify the potential influence on its DNA. Dessicated plant specimens are not a common material in conservation research because their structure is highly heterogenic, fragile and brittle. Moreover, the materials used for mounting and conservation treatment are most often adapted from bookbinding and paper conservation disciplines. They are not always suitable for the treatment of botanic material and may cause damage. When observations of stratigraphic samples under a traditional microscope proved unsatisfactory, the potential of SEM imaging was examined. SEM turned out to be a very useful tool to observe the effects of simulated conservation treatments conducted on herbarium specimen samples, but only when samples were coated with gold. The conclusions from these observations informed decisions about what versions of the conservation and mounting materials should be used for further testing. Additionally, some samples were observed after artificial aging in aclimatic chamber. It enabled us to observe the degradation of the layers of materials applied onto the specimens. The analysis focussed on the leaves of two species, Fragaria vesca (wild strawberry) and Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress).

Taxonomic revision of West-Alpine cushion plant species belonging to Androsace subsect. Aretia

High-altitude rockjasmines (genus Androsace) are a paramount example of evolutionary radiations in temperate mountains of the Northern Hemisphere. Yet, we show here that their taxonomy is incomplete and has been subject to many historical mistakes, probably due to the lack of exploration of mountains by the classical botanists who described these species. Here we wish to clarify the application of names with regard to four defined morphotypes, typical of high-elevation zones of the Western Alps, in order to set a definitive basis for morphological delimitation of a likely new species discovered in the Mont Blanc range (species not described in this work). To do so, we review the historical taxonomic treatments and positions, carefully reconsider types and species names for these morphotypes, and designate lectotypes and epitypes for each of them. In particular, we confirm the validity of names commonly used to refer to the taxa Androsace alpina, Androsace helvetica, and Androsace pubescens. We show that Androsace vandellii is an invalid name and that Androsace argentea should be used instead. Our work illustrates the utility of historical herbaria to clarify the taxonomy of complex groups of plants growing in inaccessible environments such as high-altitude regions.

The widespread and overlooked replacement of Spartina maritima by non-indigenous S. anglica and S. townsendii in north-western Adriatic saltmarshes

Non-native Spartina spp. have invaded many coastal saltmarshes worldwide. Introduced Spartina may cause problems like displacement of native vegetation and hybridisation with native species, leading to changes to relevant ecosystem services and saltmarsh geomorphology. Here we report the extensive and so far overlooked replacement of the native Spartina maritima by non-native S. anglica and S. townsendii along 400 km of the coast of the north-western Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea). We analysed the distribution of both native and non-native Spartina spp. along the six main saltmarsh areas in the region, and produced maps of their presence by using a combination of genetic tools, morphological analysis and geotagged photographs, complemented with field observations. We also reviewed historical herbaria from the region to explore when the first non-native introductions could have occured. We found that S. anglica and S. townsendii are unexpectedly widespread, having established along the whole study region, in one lagoon totally replacing the local native species. Its introduction happened virtually unnoticed, and misidentified herbarium specimens date back as early as 1987. We discuss the ecological implications of this overlooked extensive replacement, and the need for a comprehensive assessment of the status of the saltmarshes in this region, both to protect the few remaining patches of the native S. maritima and control the spread of the non-native species across the Mediterranean Sea.

Medicinal plant uses and names from the herbarium of Francesc Bolòs (1773–1844)

Ethnopharmacological relevanceEthnobotany takes into account past uses to be projected into the present and future. Most current ethnobotanical research is focused, especially in industrialised countries, on obtaining information of plant uses from elderly people. Historical ethnobotany is less cultivated, although papers have demonstrated its interest. Particularly poor, but potentially very relevant, is the attention paid to historical herbaria as a source of data on useful plants. Aims of the studyBearing this in mind, we studied the herbarium of the Catalan pharmacist and naturalist Francesc Bolòs (1773–1844), which contains information on medicinal uses and folk names, with the aim of establishing a catalogue of plants and uses and tracing them through old and contemporary literature. MethodologyThe ca. 6000 plant specimens of this herbarium were investigated to assess those including plant uses and names. These taxa have been thoroughly revised. The data have been tabulated, their biogeographic profile, possible endemic or threatened status, or invasive behaviour have been assessed, and the content regarding medicinal uses, as well as folk names, has been studied. The medicinal terms used have been interpreted as per current days’ medicine. The popular names and uses have been compared with those appearing in a certain number of works published from 11th to 20th centuries in the territories covered by the herbarium and with all the data collected in 20th and 21st centuries in an extensive database on Catalan ethnobotany. ResultsA total of 385 plant specimens (381 taxa) have been detected bearing medicinal use and folk names information. We collected data on 1107 reports of plant medicinal properties (in Latin), 32 indications of toxicity, nine reports of food use, and 123, 302 and 318 popular plant names in Catalan, Spanish and French, respectively. The most quoted systems are digestive, skin and subcutaneous tissue (plus traumatic troubles) and genitourinary. Relatively high degrees of coincidence of plant names and uses in the herbarium and the literature comparison set have been found. Of the taxa contained in this medicinal herbarium, 294 were native to the Iberian Peninsula, and 86 were alien. Neither endemic nor threatened taxa have been detected, whereas a considerable portion of the alien taxa shows invasive behaviour at present. ConclusionsOur analyses indicate a certain degree of consistency between the medicinal uses of plants recorded in this 18th and 19th century herbarium and the records found in the literature and in recent ethnobotanical datasets, accounting for the robustness of pharmaceutical ethnobotanical knowledge in the area considered. Data appearing on the specimen labels are numerous, pointing out the herbarium as a relevant source of ethnopharmacological information. Special attention should be paid to some original uses contained in the herbarium's labels for further investigation on plant properties and drug design.

What Does It Mean to be Central? A Botanical Geography of Paris 1830-1848.

This paper focuses on the geography of the botanical community in Paris, under the July Monarchy (1830-1848). At that time, the Muséum d'Histoire naturelle (MHN) was at its institutional acme and, under the impulse of François Guizot, its budget was increasing dramatically. However, closer attention to manuscript sources (correspondence, travel diaries) reveals that the botanists of the time favoured other private institutions, located both on the Right and Left Banks of the Seine. The MHN was prestigious for its collections and professors but it was relatively remote from the centre of Paris, and its plant samples were sometimes difficult to access. Several other first-class private herbaria granted liberal access to botanists: those of Jacques Gay, Phillip Barker Webb, and Benjamin Delessert. Thanks to their wealth, these plant amateurs had ownership of historical herbaria consisting of species types alongside rich botanical libraries. Botanists visiting Paris from foreign countries or other provinces of France also spent some time studying less general plant collections, like those of Count Jaubert, or specialized collections, like Montagne's or Léveillé's on cryptogams. Other botanists also enjoyed renown at the time, although they published little, if anything (like Maire). Living in crammed apartments, literally in the middle of their plant samples, these botanists were key nodes in botanical networks, although they had no relation with the prestigious MHN.

Taxons de Ptéridophytes associés à une planche de Plumier et à un spécimen des Mascareignes — lectotypification dePolypodium punctulatumPoir.

ABSTRACT Pteridophyte taxa associated to a Plumier's plate and to a specimen from the Mascarene Islands — Lectotypification of Polypodium punctulatum Poir. During our study of the Plumier's specimens, collected in the Antilles, in the historical herbaria of the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (P), we noticed that the protologues of certain taxa contain the reference to Plumier and mention specimens coming from the Mascarene Archipelago. These taxa are detailed in the present article and, in this occasion, we have proceeded to the lectotypification of Polypodium punctulatum Poir.

The history of the Portulaca oleracea aggregate in the Emilia-Romagna Po Plain (Italy) from the Roman Age to the present

Portulaca oleracea L. is a cosmopolitan synanthropic species, of uncertain origin, known in Italy since the Roman Age. The aim of this work is to reconstruct the history of P. oleracea aggregate in the Emilia-Romagna Po Plain, by discovering the microspecies that have lived in this region. A qualitative study was carried out to determine the microspecies documented in the archaeological sites of Emilia-Romagna, from the Roman to Medieval/Renaissance periods. A comparison between archaeological seeds and recent and present records was made by sampling in historical herbaria and field collections. Seven different microspecies were identified: Portulaca papillatostellulata, P. trituberculata, P. cypria, P. sativa, P. oleracea (all hexaploid); P. granulatostellulata and P. nitida (both tetraploid = 4x). They are distinguished on the basis of seed coat morphology. The findings in archaeological sites and in the present collections are discussed. Two independent events of European colonization could be proposed: First to arrive were the hexaploid (6x) species, followed by the tetraploid species. In future, the application of similar analyses to the well-preserved archaeobotanical remains of purslane, particularly the microspecies from America, could be a good way to understand the history of this interesting species aggregate from a chronological and geographical standpoint.

L’herbari de l’Institut Botànic de Barcelona com una eina per la conservació dels tàxons endèmics i amenaçats de Catalunya

The herbarium of The boTanic insTiTuTe of barcelona as a Tool for The conservaTion of The endemic and ThreaTened Taxa of caTalonia.— The herbarium of the Botanic Institute of Barcelona (BC) is the largest collection of plants of Catalonia and the second of Spain due to its volume, and it is representative of the flora of the western Mediterranean region. It includes, apart from the general collection, other historical collections (from 17th to early 20th century). The main objectives of this study were to evaluate if the endemic and threatened taxa of Catalonia are represented in the herbarium. We also provide chronological and geographical information of herborization intensity, as well as altitudinal, chorological, chronological, phenological and over-collection risk new data. We analyzed the general collection and part of informatized historical herbaria (Cadevall, Hieraciotheca Gallica et Hispanica, Institucio Catalana d’Historia Natural, Salvador, Societat Botanica Barcelonesa and Tremols [volumes I-XXI]). Specimens collected from Catalonia have been found to represent 82.24% of the 304 endemic and threatened taxa. The areas with more herborization pressure were Ribes Valley, Montserrat, Port Massif, Cardo Mountains, Montseny and Montsec Mountains. The new chorological data provided expands the distribution of Berberis vulgaris L. subsp. seroi O. Bolos & Vigo and Stachys maritima Gouan. New altitudinal and phenological data are provided for nine and 40 taxa, respectively.

Catalogue of the Benjamin Balansa Moss Collections from Paraguay in Herbarium Genavense (G)

Price, M. J. (2012). Catalogue of the Benjamin Balansa moss collections from Paraguay in Herbarium Genavense (G). Candollea 67: 153–179. In English, English and French abstracts.One of the most significant bryophyte collections from Paraguay is that of the Frenchman Benedict (Benjamin) Balansa. His collections were distributed to, amongst other institutions, B, BM, G, H-BR, L, NY and PC. In Geneva, Balansa collections can be found in the historical herbaria of Boissier, Reuter-Barbey, Barbey-Boissier and the non G-DC De Candolle collection which were all incorporated into the municipal herbarium (G) of the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève. The French bryologist Emile Bescherelle worked on the majority of the Balansa moss collections from Paraguay, describing 73 new species from amongst this material. With the purchase of Bescherelle's herbarium by the BM, Balansa's original Paraguay specimens came to reside there. A total of 390 specimens are present in G for 158 Balansa collection numbers, including 22 specimens for 15 previously unpublished Balansa numbers. The 158 collection numbers and 390 specimens in G cover 88 specific and infraspecific names that represent 67 currently accepted taxa and eight nomina nuda. Of the 390 specimens, 160 are types including 3 lectotypes, 28 isolectotypes, 19 isotypes and 110 syntypes. For each taxonomic entry, the place of publication, the collection number, current name, and for the types the type status and typification, if found, are provided. A complete list of the published Balansa collection numbers for the Paraguay mosses, including their current name, the name under which they were published and the place of publication, is also given herein.

A new species and hybrid in the St Helena endemic genus Trochetiopsis

The discovery in historic herbaria of an overlooked extinct endemic from the island of St Helena is reported. The first descriptions of St Helena Ebony, Trochetiopsis melanoxylon (Sterculiaceae), and the specimens associated with them in the herbaria of Oxford University (OXF) and the Natural History Museum, London (BM), do not match living and later-collected material, and instead represent an extinct plant. A new name is therefore needed for living St Helena Ebony: Trochetiopsis ebenus Cronk sp. nov. The hybrid between this species and the related T. erythroxylon is also described here: Trochetiopsis × benjamini Cronk hybr. nov. (Sterculiaceae), and chromosome counts of 2n = 40 are reported for the hybrid and both parents for the first time. The re-assessment of the extinct ebony emphasizes the importance of historic herbarium collections for the study of species extinction.