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The University of British Columbia Herbarium Databases
Brief history and description of the UBC Herbarium:
John Davidson became the first Provincial Botanist of British Columbia in 1913 and he immediately started a botanical garden and herbarium. The University of British Columbia was established in temporary quarters in 1915 and Davidson was appointed its first professor. His collections started the University of British Columbia Herbarium (Index Herbariorum acronym UBC), which has grown to more than 560,000 accessioned specimens, the third largest in Canada. The Department of Agriculture (DAO) and National Museum (CAN) in the Ottawa region are somewhat larger.
The UBC Herbarium has the largest collection of British Columbia plants, as might be expected, but is worldwide in scope. The vascular plant collection contains over 222,000 specimens. Due primarily to the collections of Dr. W. B. Schofield, the bryophyte collection is one of the largest in North America, with about 227,000 specimens. The algae collection, of over 67,000 specimens, includes the world's largest collections of Alaskan and British Columbian seaweeds, largely due to the efforts of Dr. R. F. Scagel and his many students and colleagues. The lichen collection includes more than 36,000 specimens and the (other) fungi collection more than 14,000 specimens.
The UBC Herbarium is part of the Department of Botany. The Director of the Herbarium is Dr. Jeannette Whitton, Curator of Algae is Dr. Michael Hawkes, Curator of Bryophytes is Dr. Wilf Schofield, Curator of Fungi is Dr. Mary Berbee, Curator of Lichens is Mr. Trevor Goward, Curator of Vascular Plants is Dr. Jeannette Whitton.
Brief history and description of the UBC Herbarium databases:
In the late 1970's, Dr. R. F. Scagel, then Director of the Herbarium, and Dr. Jack Maze, then Curator of Vascular Plants, had David Crowe, then Jack's graduate student, write a computer program to store specimen label data on tapes in the University's mainframe computer centre. Since then, specimen data have been entered and stored when funds were available. In the mid 1990's the Computer Centre phased out such files. As part of research by Dr. Fred Ganders and Dr. Helen Kennedy, supported by a grant from the (Canadian) Tri Council Eco Research Project entitled Living Sustainably in the Lower Fraser Basin, Alan Boulton, then a zoology graduate student, wrote a program to retrieve all the stored data before they were destroyed, so they could be entered in databases on PCs and Macs in the Herbarium.
Currently, mostly unedited label data from about 65% of our specimens are now accessible at this website. As funds become available, additional specimens will be entered and the data edited. Dr. Dave Carmean has constructed the website. Funding for the iMac server and Dave's costs has been generously provided by donors (mainly UBC Botany alumni) to the Herbarium Fund, and matched by the Botany Department, thanks to Department Head, Dr. Carl Douglas.
Warning about data quality:
Label data from nearly all the fungi, lichens, and algae are in the databases, but only about 55% of the vascular plants and bryophytes have been entered so far. Except for the fungi and lichens, most of the data have not yet been edited for typographical errors. Even though many specimens, including most B. C. collections, have been annotated for nomenclatural and taxonomic changes in the last 20 years, most database entries have not been edited for nomenclatural and taxonomic changes since the data were entered.
A more complete bryophyte database, edited for typographical errors,
and partly edited for nomenclatural and taxonomic changes, is available
Merlin Database, which may be accessed from the Bryophyte Herbarium web page. This database may be searched but data cannot be printed or exported from it at this time.
Donations to improve the database welcome:
Donations to the UBC Herbarium Fund are tax deductible in Canada, the
United States, or Hong Kong. For donations to be tax deductible in
Canada, make cheques payable to: The University of British Columbia, with
a memo indicating Herbarium Fund. For donations to be tax deductible in
the United States, make cheques payable to: The American Foundation for
The University of British Columbia, with a memo indicating Herbarium
Fund. For donations to be tax deductible in Hong Kong, contact the
Herbarium or Development Office for information. Donations can be sent
to: Development Officer, Faculty of Science, UBC, #1505-6270 University
Blvd., Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z4.
This database was originally put online by Dave Carmean.
Comments and suggestions are welcomed!