The Global Plants Initiative (GPI), is a collaborative effort of major herbaria around the world to create a "virtual herbarium" of type specimens and other important collections. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, each partner herbarium in the Initiative works to capture high-resolution digital images and all pertinent specimen data from their type specimens.

The resulting database will be hosted by JSTOR. Researchers will be able to compare important specimens from herbaria around the world without having to leave their desks. Additionally, our most precious specimens will be better preserved by minimizing potential handling and shipping damage or loss.

Watch the Global Plants Initiative overview video which gives a short intorduction to type specimens and the GPI project.

The University and Jepson Herbaria together hold an estimated 10,000 type specimens. We began scanning and entering data from specimens in June 2008. We use an inverted flat-bed scanner mounted on a device that gently raises the specimen sheet to the scanner's platen glass, so that the delicate specimen never has to be flipped over or caught under the hinge of a lid. The 600 dpi high-resolution scans allow researchers to examine specimens in remarkable detail.

We use the same process to generate high quality scans of specimens requested as "e-loans." Completion of the types scanning project is targeted for the summer of 2011.
6000+ images are currently (October 2010) available.

---

Copyright © 2009 Regents of the University of California -- Updated October 17, 2013