Format: ORAL

Patricia Barber1, Alex Asase2,3,Israel T. Borokini4,Alison Colwell5, Charles C. Davis6, Nico M. Franz7, PeterFritsch8,9, Edward Gilbert7,10, Bonnie L. Isaac11,Robert Johnson12, Beth A. Kaplin13,14, Rebecca Y. Kartzinel15, Maria Lucia Kawasaki16,JonathanKennedy6,Jennifer Kluse17, Elena M. Kramer6, LauraLagomarsino17,TatyanaLivshultz18,19,Porter P. Lowry1, Michelle McMahon20,Brent D. Mishler21,Tiwonge I. Mzumara22, Mare Nazaire23, Kevin C. Nixon24,Nestor Engone Obiang25, Sylvia Orli26, 27, Katelin Pearson7,10, A. Townsend Peterson28, Daniel Potter5,Mitchell J.Power29, Tiana F. Rehman8,9,Heidi Schmidt1, D. RabernSimmons30, Michaela Schmull6, EricSchuettpelz26,27,Chelsea R.Smith16, Neil Snow31,Patrick W.Sweeney32,NicoleTarnowsky33,Jordan K.Teisher1,George D.Weiblen34,Timothy J.S.Whitfeld34, JohnWieczorek35, PaulaZermoglio36

1 Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, USA 2 Centre for Plant Medicine Research (CPMR), Mampong-Akuapem, Ghana 3 University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana 4 Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA 5 University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA 6 Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 7 Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA 8 Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Fort Worth, Texas, USA 9 Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Fort Worth, Texas, USA 10 Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), Gainesville, Florida, USA 11 Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA 12 Bringham and Young University, Provo, Utah, USA 13 University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda 14 University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 15 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA 16 Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA 17 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA 18 Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 19 Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 20 University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA 21 University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA 22 Malawi University of Science and Technology, Mikolongwe, Malawi 23 California Botanic Garden, Claremont, California, USA 24 Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA 25 L’Herbier National du Gabon, Libreville, Gabon 26 National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., USA 27 Smithsonian, US National Herbarium, Washington, D.C., USA 28 University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA 29 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA 30 Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA 31 Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas, USA 32 Yale Peabody Museum, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA 33 New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York, US 34 Bell Museum, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA 35 Rauthiflor LLC, Bariloche, Argentina 36 Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural (IRNAD) Sede Andina, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina

Herbarium specimens represent a rich source of data on plant diversity. These rich information resources, however, too often remain in analog format only, and have not been digitized and enabled in the service of science. This project aims to digitize, enrich, and share openly the rich data resources held in 21 U.S. herbaria that correspond to plants of tropical Africa, which will total more than 1.1 million herbarium specimens. Imaging and data capture is being carried out at each of the herbaria, and data are then aggregated for efficient georeferencing. For most records, georeferencing is being performed automatically, and the remainder will be georeferenced manually by plant scientists in Ghana, Rwanda, Malawi, and Gabon. Finally, project data will be subjected to detailed quality-control assessment, and served openly to the scientific community via a dedicated African Plants portal on Symbiota (https://serv.biokic.asu.edu/africa/plantae/index.php), as well as integration into biodiversity data portals such as iDigBio and GBIF. The project has thus created a broad, international, intercontinental network of scientists and students interested in and experienced with management and analysis of data about African plant distributions. These rich data resources will be used to understand the conservation status of African plant species in much greater detail than has been possible to date.