Africa’s herbarium collections are a scientific treasure. They need to be digitised before more biodiversity is lost

Universities and biodiversity institutes have hidden treasures: their collections of pressed plant specimens.

These are plants that have been flattened, dried and mounted on special cardboard sheets.

Some of them were collected centuries ago.

They hold information about where species occur and how ecosystems changed over time.

Yet for many researchers and policymakers, that information remains invisible.

The collections are filed in cabinets and the data mostly only accessible if seen in person, one specimen at a time.

This is the central challenge facing African herbaria today.

Herbaria are libraries of the plant world, holding collections and botanical records.

Too few of these records are digitised, searchable or accessible online.

That gap has real consequences for science, conservation and Africa’s ability to make evidence-based decisions about its natural heritage.

Botanical taxonomists like ourselves study herbarium specimens and live plants to explore and organise botanical diversity.

They generate data which informs other plant related research, conservation priorities and biodiversity legislation.

In a recent paper , we explained how digitisation of herbarium specimens in South Africa and the western Indian Ocean island states (La Réunion, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, the Comoros, and the Seychelles) makes access to collections easier while protecting specimens.

Our research shows that digitisation allows researchers, institutions and policymakers to share information and work together.