Mosses and Liverworts of Uganda (MALOU)

Uganda bryophyte collections processing

1. There will be a co-ordinator appointed for each family (but sometimes also to specific genera within a family) - see 'Uganda Expeditions - Taxonomic Responsibilities' on the Uganda expedition menu.

2. All an individual's collections are held personally, and each individual has the responsibility of identifying their collections at least to family/genus level, and then passing these to the co-ordinator for that family/genus. Any stems or portions of the plant examined should be placed in a mini-packet and labelled. All packets should be fully labelled, including UTM and/or lat/long, before sending to the co-ordinator. Please do not use letters l and o as suffices: depending on the font used, there could be confusion with the numbers 1 and 0.

3. The co-ordinator will then either:

  • confirm the identification, or
  • identify the specimen, or
  • send to an expert for identification, and
  • co-ordinate any taxonomic publication relating to the family/genus.

(Vouchers should be sent to the 'expert' of a group only by the co-ordinator of that group, or by agreement with the co-ordinator. Delays may be greater, but it is important to regulate out approach to 'experts'.)

4. Following identification, the co-ordinator will return specimens to the collector (so they can record the identification, and see the identified specimen). The collector may keep a reference collection if there is sufficient material for distribution.

5. The collector will then return the collections to the co-ordinator, for distribution to the following herbaria:

  • Edinburgh,
  • Makere,

and if sufficient material, also to:

  • Missouri,
  • BM,
  • NYBG.

If there is insufficient material to make 2 specimens, the co-ordinator will send the specimen to Edinburgh, but will try to ensure that a specimen of each taxon goes to Makerere, and that MO, BM etc. get something. (It is in our interest that African material is available in herbaria used by tropical bryologists.) Each co-ordinator must keep a detailed record of all specimens sent to herbaria. It is suggested that co-ordinators may wish to delay distribution until work on the family is complete, or at least well advanced. Specimens that are too scrappy should be returned to the collector for disposal, and not distributed, or quoted in papers.

Suggestion

If vouchers are to be posted, consideration could be given to using double-packets, especially if there is fine debris or soil in the voucher. In addition, wrapping batches of packets in paper and sellotaping would probably assist in confining the dust.

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