Seven things you should know about Oxford’s botanical treasure troves
The Oxford University Herbaria are the oldest of their kind in the UK, containing more than a million dried, pressed plant specimens from every corner of the globe.
1. The herbaria are packed full of curiosities, from specimens mounted on historic wallpaper to papier-mâché teaching models.
Oxford is home to more than one million herbaria specimens — pieces of plant that are pressed flat and dried, attached to sheets of card and accompanied by a label. Some are mounted on 18th-century wallpaper, others bear the signature of famous plant collectors and scientists. All have a story to tell.
As well as pressed specimens, the herbaria also contain a plethora of other items: fruits and flowers preserved in alcohol, botanical teaching models, wood blocks, microscope slides, an extensive botanical library, and an archive of original manuscripts and botanical illustrations.
2. Amongst the most important specimens in the herbaria are the type specimens, of which there are an incredible 40,000.
Types are the specimens that were used when a species was first given its scientific name — the physical reference to which all researchers can turn when studying a particular organism. They are absolutely essential reference materials, and represent a major and irreplaceable international asset.
3. Thousands of plant collectors have contributed to the herbaria over the centuries, including Charles Darwin.
Tucked away inside the herbaria are a handful of specimens collected by naturalist Charles Darwin during his voyage on the HMS Beagle. For five years the Beagle surveyed the coast of South America, leaving Darwin free to explore the continent and islands, collecting samples (like this one from Bahia in Brazil) as he went. Exactly how and why some of these ended up in Oxford is a bit of a mystery, though.
‘I arrived at this place on the 28th February, and am now writing this letter after having in real earnest strolled in the forest of the new world. No person could imagine anything so beautiful as the ancient town of Bahia, it is fairly embosomed in a luxuriant wood of beautiful trees...’
— Extract from a letter written by Charles Darwin to his father, dated 1st March 1832.
4. The herbaria and their specimens could help to secure the future of biodiversity on Earth.
The herbaria’s early contributors could have had little idea of the innovative ways in which their pressed, dried specimens would be used by researchers today. As well as telling us about the past, Oxford’s collections have become essential tools for those investigating modern biodiversity-related issues, such as species conservation, environmental change and food security.
Last year, for example, herbaria specimens helped scientists to discover the closest living relative to the sweet potato — research that can now be used to introduce important traits such as pathogen resistance into this incredibly valuable food crop.
5. The way the collections are currently arranged makes it extremely time-consuming to extract data from them.
The fact that the majority of the herbaria are stored in cupboards (rather than digitised and made available online) presents a whole host of challenges for today’s researchers, particularly those searching the collections by something other than scientific name.
Let’s say, for example, that someone wants to see all of the herbaria’s holdings of trees found in Oxfordshire during the 19th century — without a list of scientific names, they will have to hunt through approximately 200,000 specimens to find what they need. Less than ideal, we’re sure you’ll agree.
6. The replacement value of the Oxford University Herbaria has been estimated at at least £48 million.
Whilst it’s impossible to put a price on such unique specimens, the cost of recollecting them is thought to be at least £48 million. This means that, were the worst ever to happen, the herbaria would be near impossible to replace.
‘We’ve got these incredible resources, but they’re under huge threat as well, because you only need one fire… If you think about dried plants in dried paper in wooden cupboards — the whole lot could go up so easily.’
Kathy Willis, Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford (BBC News)
7. Digitising the collections will be absolutely, positively transformative.
One solution to the herbaria’s predicament is to harness the power of a digital database — something the team is striving very hard to do. With the collections digitised in full, not only would they be protected for future generations, but researchers around the world would be able to capitalise quickly and efficiently upon vast quantities of data, collected over centuries, to answer pressing questions about the planet’s plants.
Supporting the Oxford University Herbaria
Oxford is aiming to raise £50,000 to digitise the herbaria’s invaluable collection of legumes — a hugely important family of plants that provides food, fuel, fertiliser and even pharmaceuticals to communities around the world. Follow the link below to find out more or to lend your support.
