A “hidden” record of UK’s historic biodiversity including flowers picked two centuries ago with links to Charles Darwin is being digitised.
More than 10,000 dried and pressed specimens held at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) herbarium in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, are being photographed and digitally catalogued to make them more accessible to researchers.
Described by RAU as a “time-capsule record of biodiversity in the UK”, researchers said the possibilities are endless, branching out into climate change, habitat management, genetics, and much more.
Dr Kelly Hemmings, from the RAU, said it will allow the herbarium to “really make a global impact in research”.
She added: “Until it is digitised, and the metadata collated, we have no way, other than manually sifting through the handwritten sheets, to know exactly what the collection holds, so this rich seam of data is effectively ‘hidden’ natural heritage.”
