Informatics: Resources for Asian Plants
The Arnold Arboretum stores, manages, and shares many vital information resources for Asian plants, including images, names, checklists, distribution data, and determination resources. As a hub for information on Asian plants, the Arboretum facilitates research on biogeography, conservation, resource management, and the impacts of global and land-use change on Asia’s plants and plant communities. Core resources include:
- Herbarium Collections of the Arnold Arboretum (more »)
- Database of living collections (more »)
- Interactive identification keys:
- Flora of China (DELTA, Navikey)
- Bornean Trees and Shrubs
- Forest plots data of the Center for Tropical Forest Science (more »)
- Library Collections (more »)
- Asian plant images
- Historical records
Herbarium Collections of the Arnold Arboretum (A)
The Arnold Arboretum Herbarium (A) contains more than 1.3 million specimens, most of which are housed within the Harvard University Herbaria (HUH) collections in Cambridge, MA. The collection is especially strong in material from Indo-Malesia (India to the Philippines and Papuasia), China, and Eastern and Southeastern Asia; the Chinese and Philippine collections are among the most comprehensive in the world. Some herbarium collection sets are of significant historical importance for the Asian region, and the Arboretum and HUH serve jointly as one of the five editorial centers in the western hemisphere for the Flora of China project. The Arboretum collection is also rich in type specimens: of some 93,000 specimens that have been databased as of May 2011, almost one-third have at least one type status associated with them. The collection also contains approximately 130,000 specimens that represent temperate plants of cultivated origin. These include vouchers from the Arboretum’s living collection and are housed in the Arboretum’s Cultivated Herbarium in the Hunnewell Building.
Many of the type specimens have been scanned and are available in JSTOR.
Database of Living Collections
The Arnold Arboretum cultivates one of the world’s premiere collections of woody plants. The living collection comprises approximately 15,000 individual plants representing more than 2,000 species. Many of these accessions or accession lineages are of historical and botanical importance, and can be traced to the original North American introductions of Eastern Asian plants collected by Arboretum staff and affiliates including Charles Sprague Sargent, Ernest H. Wilson, John G. Jack, Joseph Rock, and William Purdom. Acquisition efforts are on-going, with new germplasm obtained directly through exploration and indirectly through collaboration with other botanic gardens, arboreta, and researchers. The Arnold Arboretum’s living collections database, BG-BASE, is online and can be easily searched.
Center for Tropical Forest Science data
The Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) is a global network of forest research plots and scientists dedicated to the study of tropical and temperate forest function and diversity. A joint program of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Arnold Arboretum, the multi-institutional network comprises 40 forest research plots in 21 countries across Asia, America, Africa, and Europe. CTFS monitors the growth and survival of approximately 4.5 million trees and 8,500 species. The network supports long-term, large-scale research on forests to: increase scientific understanding of forest ecosystems; guide sustainable forest management and natural-resource policy; monitor the impacts of climate change; and build capacity in forest science. The database of 11 million tree records is maintained at the Arnold Arboretum, which is also responsible for maintaining the network’s 20 research plots established in Asia.
Library Collections
The holdings of Arnold Arboretum libraries (both in Cambridge and Jamaica Plain) include 14,000 volumes directly related to Southeast Asian botany, one of the largest such collections in the world. The Arboretum has also played a key role in the publication of important botanical treatises focused on Asian plants and forests, including Elmer Drew Merrill’s “A Bibliography of Eastern Asiatic Botany” in 1938.
Images
- Botanical and Cultural Images of Eastern Asia, 1907-1927
- South Central China and Tibet: Hotspot of Diversity
- Images of/by E.H. Wilson
- Images of/by J.G. Jack
- Images of/by J.F.C. Rock