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All Asia Thematic Collections Network: Digitizing Asian Vascular Plant Specimens
The All Asia Thematic Collections Network, launched in 2021 with NSF funding and led by Harvard University Herbaria, is a U.S. initiative to digitize over 3 million Asian vascular plant specimens from museums, universities, and botanical gardens.
Why Focus on Asian Vascular Plants?
Asia, the largest continent, boasts diverse habitats from tundra to rainforests, hosting over one-third of the world's 350,000 plant species. These range from alpine plants to rainforest giants, and include several biodiversity hotspots. Unfortunately, this diversity faces threats from human activity and climate change. The specimens digitized represent the largest U.S. collections of Asian vascular plants, tracing back some of the earliest floral explorations and species discoveries in Asia.
The digital records serve myriad scientific uses, from biodiversity research to climate change studies, and non-traditional applications like virus transmission modeling and machine-vision algorithms. Available free-of-charge, these records support scientific, historical, cultural, and artistic endeavors.