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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.
Preserved plant specimens provide us with important information about plant diversity and distribution, and represent an observable, relatively permanent, and verifiable form of evidence of a plant’s existence in time and space. If these specimens are properly preserved and maintained, they can last for several hundred years. Join us in exploring the best practices for collecting scientific specimens, specifically for deposit in your local herbarium. We will discuss methods for vascular plants specifically but will briefly address some other special cases such as fungi, bryophytes, and lichens.
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89965222210?pwd=kkpLT0WUEgxj4kGqa8GrufTTQjqosl.1
Meeting ID: 899 6522 2210
2024 has been a great year for digitization in the Herbarium! Thank you for your continued support. We’ll be sharing updates soon.
You can get involved! We currently have four different projects for our Armchair Botanist across our collections: BRIT/SMU, NLU, & VDB:
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!
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
Herbarium
FORT WORTH BOTANIC GARDEN
3220 Botanic Garden Blvd
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(817) 463-4160
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We respectfully acknowledge that the Fort Worth Botanic Garden is located on traditional lands of Indigenous Peoples. We honor the ancestry, heritage, and gifts of all Indigenous Peoples who were sustained by these lands and give thanks to them. We are grateful that these lands continue to provide enrichment for many people today. [More…]
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