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March 25, 2024 | In the PressFrom Spectrum News (https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/news/2024/03/24/bishop-museum-reaches-milestone-in-digitizing-its-hawaiian-plant-collection)
The public can now access a fully digitized collection of Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum’s botany collection, the largest Hawaiian plant collection available in the world featuring 180,000-plus specimens.
The botany bank contains scanned images of the specimens, photos from the field, scientific names, where plants occur throughout the major Hawaiian Islands and other natural history information. It can be accessed at Bishop Museum’s Plants of Hawaii website.
The years-long effort is part of the museum’s ongoing Digital Futures Initiative with the goal to enable the public to access the museum’s vast information, collections and resources on Hawaii and the Pacific.
“It’s vitally important that we understand and have a record of what plants we have in Hawaii, and especially how invasive species have affected native plants over time,” said Tim Gallaher, Ph.D., Bishop Museum curator of Botany, in a news release.
“For more than a century, Bishop Museum’s Natural Science collections have been an invaluable resource for researchers and government agencies around the world. Now, through PlantsOfHawaii.org, anyone can have access to our database of plant information and imagery at any time, and from anywhere,” said Gallaher.
In 1992, the Hawaii State Legislature tasked the Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaii Museum of Cultural and Cultural History, to launch and manage the Hawaii Biological Survey and its work to track the biota in Hawaii over time. It includes information and observances about plants and animals, where they are observed, who observed them, their ecosystems and other important data that, paired with the voucher specimens that the museum cares for, are critical to the work of natural resource managers and all those working to preserve the earth’s fragile biodiversity, according to the release.
The museum’s botany collection currently has over 500,000 database entries with 25 to 50 new introduced species catalogued each year. Some are potentially invasive; others will require observation over time to determine how they affect the islands’ ecosystems.
“Our hope is that through PlantsOfHawaii.org, we can encourage both experts in their field, as well as citizen scientists, to join in the effort to better understand – and protect – our native flora,” said Barbara Kennedy, Bishop Museum Botany collection manager, whose team oversees the digitization project. “Keiki wishing to know more about our aina and the plants in their backyards and gardens are especially welcome to explore our digital resource.”
Kennedy says the ongoing botany project has been a community effort. “The work continues, and we’d like to ask that those who may be interested in donating their time and talents to please visit BishopMuseum.org and learn more.”
