Oral Paper

         Bryology and Lichenology

Digitizing the bryophyte and lichen collections of the University of Florida herbarium (FLAS)

Presenting Author
Alan Franck
Description
The University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS) houses approximately 100,000 specimens of bryophytes and 20,000 specimens of lichens. The most substantial contributions were made through the efforts of Severin Rapp (1900s-1940s) and Dana Griffin, III (1960s-2000s). The FLAS collections have an excellent representation of Florida’s diversity, of which nearly all specimens are digitized but with images only of the labels. Recent efforts via our TCN from NSF (DBI #2001500) have focused on digitizing the international specimens to include images of the actual collected organism and the label. Images of the dried bryophyte and lichen organisms will be useful for identification as well as visualizing their phenotypic diversity. The FLAS bryophyte collection is especially rich in Neotropical specimens, but only a small portion of these are fully digitized. Current plans are to fully digitize (or nearly so) the entire collection over the ensuing years. What remains particularly daunting is the large assemblage of unaccessioned material and unprocessed duplicates which need to be worked through.