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New species in old collections

Norman Robson and Mark Carine latest research is suggesting studying herbaria collections is as effective as field collecting for discovering new species.

strobilanthes-lupulina-gen

Strobilanthes lupulina

Carine's research examining the process of species discovery shows only 16% of 3000 new species were described within five years of collection and nearly 25% of their descriptions involved studying specimens over 50 years old.

Scientists estimate there are over 70,000 species of flora still to be described. Extrapolating from these results implys half of these species are already collected and stored in herbaria.

The paper was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS) and the study was a collaboration led by Dr Robert Scotland from Oxford University involving researchers from 

  • Earthwatch Institute
  • Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
  • Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 
  • Missouri Botanical Garden

The study emphasizes the importance of herbarium-based taxonomic research, suggesting 

  •  effort
  • funding 
  • research focus 

should be directed  to examining herbarium material as well as collecting new material in the field

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Researcher

mark carine
Dr Mark Carine

Researcher, Macronesian Flowering Plants, Department of Botany.

Bookmarks

Reference

Bebber, D. P., Carine, M. A., Wood, J. R. I., Wortley, A. H., Harris, D. J., Prance, G. T., Davidse, G., Paige, J., Pennington, T. D., Robson, N. K. B., Scotland, R. W. (2010). Herbaria are a major frontier for species discovery. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA doi:10.1073/pnas.1011841108