Unlocking the vault: UK plant collections

We are extracting flowering time data from the Museum’s collection of British and Irish plant specimens to study the phenology of selected orchid species.

When this data is compared with recent observations by amateur natural historians, it will provide a unique record of environmental conditions through time.

Further phenological studies will focus on key widespread grassland plants in the UK, investigating:

• relationships to the life cycles of selected UK Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera
• shifts in morphology and pollinator interactions

Methods

Alongside our partners, we are:

• documenting shifts in flowering times, known as phenology
• measuring variation in plant morphology through time
• documenting responses to shifts in CO₂ concentrations

Curatorial work undertaken prior to the extraction of the specimen collection event data includes:

• locating backlog material for each selected taxon
• preparing and mounting this material and undertaking conservation work on specimens already in the main collection
• checking identifications of specimens and updating nomenclature where necessary
• checking locality information and resolving this to at least British Isles vice-county scale
• providing a unique identifier (barcode) for each collection event

Digitisation

Our digitisation team have imaged and databased the specimens. After extraction of the collection event data, a team of volunteers collect additional morphometric and pollinator data for analysis by a quantitative ecologist and statistician.

Related project

Museum biologist and botanist Kath Castillo and artist Chrystel Lebas are working on a project to observe environmental change in the UK. They are using the Sir Edward James Salisbury Archive to compare images of the Scottish landscape from the early 1900s to the same landscapes today.

Related links