TODAY'S HOURS: 8 AM – 5 PM

*Last entry is an hour before closing

TODAY'S HOURS: 8 AM – 5 PM

*Last entry is an hour before closing

Armchair Botanist

The Armchair Botanist program is a collaboration among botanists, museum professionals, students, biodiversity informaticians, and you! 

The scientific specimens curated by the BRIT Philecology Herbarium are carefully stored in museum cabinets in a climate-controlled facility, making them difficult to access. It is the goal of this program to make all our specimens available online (images and data) to further research and education. A digitized specimen is a tool that allows access to scientific vouchers and observations that span hundreds of years – an essential component to biological research, as well as any research that deals with past environmental change and future models.

This program includes activities such as presentations, transcription blitzes, and online community science activities to help liberate the scientific specimens that are held in public trust by FWBG | BRIT.

In 2024, we plan to have Armchair Botanist meetings over Zoom every month at 12:00 PM (with some exceptions). Please check here for those links and for other events we host. If you’d like us to email you with information about our events and links to recorded meetings, sign up here.

Scheduled Zoom Forums

Thursday, November 14th from 12:00-1:00 PM CT.  

 
 

Upcoming: November 14, December 12

Check out our YouTube channel for our past forum recordings or scroll down to the bottom of this page.

Current Projects 

You can get involved! We currently have four different projects for our Armchair Botanist across our collections: BRIT/SMU, NLU, & VDB:

  • BRIT/SMU/NLU/VDB: Mapping (georeferencing) our specimens from Texas & Oklahoma. Instructions for getting started can be found on this website: www.torcherbaria.org/georef/ Email herbarium@brit.org if you have any questions!
  • BRIT/SMU: Skeletal transcription of our specimens from Africa through Crowdsourcing platform.
  • VDB: Skeletal transcription of specimens from around the world through Crowdsourcing platform.
  • NLU: Skeletal transcription of specimens from the USA & around the world through Crowdsourcing platform.

The BRIT Library has a new volunteer project with Dr. Sherwin Carlquist’s collections that may be of interest to our Armchair Botanists. Email BRIT Librarian, Ana Niño, if you’d like to get involved!

Past Activities & Meetings

The Armchair Botanist zoom sessions have been running since April 2020. Please check back on this page for zoom invitations to future events. 

2024: October 10: Conserving Texas Native Plant Biodiversity: Seed Banking, Biology, & Research at BRIT

2024: September 26: ¡Celebremos los helechos de Mexico!

2024: August 15: Texas Botanists in Madrid for XX IBC

2024: July 18: CC Summer Internship – Silphium albiflorum & Hexalectris orchids [no recording]

2024: June 13: Mapping the Plants of Texas

2024: May 9: Find the Parts! Floral Morphology of Native Spring Flowers

2024: April 11: Eclipse in the Garden – Recapping Community Science Involvement

2024: March 14: Imaging and Imagining the Sherwin Carlquist Collection

2024: February 8: Blossoming Virtually: A Year in Review and Future Endeavors of Armchair Botanist Volunteers

2023: December 14: All Asia TCN: The People Behind the Plants

2023: November 9: Tales of a Botanical Odyssey in the Philippines

2023: September 14: Exploring Peru’s Breathtaking Flora: Discoveries from the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program 

2023: August 10: Summer Floristic Survey of Silphium Prairie at Rock Creek Ranch Park

2023: July 13: Decoding the Botanical Enigma: Empowering Plant Identification through Dichotomous Keys

2023: May 11: Springtime in Nowhere

2023: April 13: WeDigBio! From Pressed Plants to Pixels

2023: March 9: March Madness! Carnivorous and Parasitic Plants of Texas

2023: February 9: Plant Phenology: How Herbarium Specimens can Inform of us Nature’s Seasonal Changes

2023: January: Crowdsourcing Training Sessions

2022: December 8: Winter Tree ID!

2022: November 10: Past to Present: Indigenous Culinary Arts of Lower Turtle Island

2022: October 13: #WeDigBio! presentation on Women in Texas & Oklahoma botany 

2022: September: #TranscriptionThursday (Sept. 1, 8, 15. 22, 29)

2022: August: #TranscriptionThursday (Aug. 4, 18, 25)

2022: July: NotesfromNature Training (July 5, 8) #TranscriptionThursday (July 7, 28); Quercus tardifolia discussion (July 21)

2022: June #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (June 2, Scotland presentation: 16. 23, 30)

2022: May #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (May 5, 12, 19)

2022: April #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Apr. 7th WeDigBio 2022 with special fern guest, Dr. Alejandra Vasco; 14, 21, 28)

2022: March #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Mar. 3, 10 17, 24, 31)

2022: February #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Feb. 10, 17, 24)

2022: January #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Jan. 12, 20, 27)

2021: December #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Dec. 1, 8, 15)

2021: November #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Nov. 3, 17)

2021: October #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Oct. 6, 20, 27) & WeDigBio event via Zoom (Oct. 14)

2021: September #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Sept.1:Special guest, Rachel Carmickle, talked about pitcher plants and bogs in Texas, Sept. 8, 15, 23, 29)

2021: August  #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Aug. 4, 11, 18)

2021: July #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Jul. 7, 14, 21)

2021: June #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (June 2, 9, 16, 23, 30)

2021: May #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (May 5, 12, 19, 26)

2021: April WeDigBio events via Zoom (Apr. 7-11) & #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Apr. 14, 21, 28)

2021: March #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Mar. 3, 17, 24, 31)

2021: February #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Feb. 3, 10, 17, 24)

2021: January #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Jan. 7, 14, 21)  & #TranscriptionWednesday via Zoom (Jan. 27)

2020: December #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Dec. 3, 10, 17)

2020: November #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Nov. 5, 12, 19) 

2020: October #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Oct. 1, 15, 22, 29); 

2020: October 14: Private (virtual) Armchair Botanist event for registrants of the 2020 Texas Master Naturalist Virtual Annual Meeting

2020: October 15: WeDigBio Online Transcription Blitz from 1-4pm (central time) via Zoom. Learn more about the effort: www.wedigbio.org 

2020: September #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Sep. 3, 10, 17, 24) 

2020: August #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Aug. 6, 13, 20, 27) 

2020: July #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Jul. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30) 

2020: June #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Jun. 4, 11, 18, 25) 

2020: May #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (May 14, 21, 28)

2020: May 7: #TranscriptionThursday with guest host: BRIT Fern Curator Dr. Alejandra Vasco

2020: April #TranscriptionThursday via Zoom (Apr. 23, 30)

2020: April 16-20: WeDigBio Lite Online-only Transcription Blitz using the Notes From Nature platform (Zoom interaction with BRIT staff on Fri., Apr. 17 at 4pm CDT, and Sat., Apr. 18 at 11am CDT., 28

Happy Botanizing!

Department

Herbarium

Point of Contact

Tiana Franklin Rehman

Director of the Herbarium & Collections Manager

Phone: (817) 546-1845

Email: trehman@brit.org

Ways to Engage

BRIT Facebook

BRIT Twitter

NotesfromNature talk: @jbest@trehman, and @abordelon