One of the primary goals of the ASU herbarium is to increase public access to our vast amount of
data and resources.
Web-based tools have proven an excellent way to accomplish this.
All of the pages are continually added to and upgraded.
The ASU collections database is available on the World Wide Web along with other biological databases at the Southwestern
Natural History Databases site. The collections database is searchable by taxon, collector, collection number, and location
keyword. Records include collections data and images (when available). Records for threatened and endangered plants do not
show locality data, but interested researchers can contact the curator for information on those records.
Records that include latitude/longitude information can be mapped by clicking the "map" tab.
More than 11,000 images of scanned herbarium sheets and photos are searchable by scientific or common name. Each herbarium
sheet appears life-sized on the screen, and higher resolution close-ups of fertile parts are included for some taxa. One
representative herbarium sheet of each species growing wild in the Phoenix area has been scanned, and we are in the
process of scanning a representative of every species growing wild in Arizona.
SALIX (Semi-automatic label information extraction system) SALIX.pdf
The goals of SALIX are to capture herbarium specimen label data with the use of optical character
recognition technologies and transfer those data into a database.
Twenty-one Arizona regional checklists are searchable by scientific and common name. Areas currently included are: Arizona,
ASU Campus, Buckeye Hills Recreational Area, Camp Creek, Hassyampa River Preserve, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, McDowell
Mountains Regional Park, Papago Park, Phoenix Flora (cultivated plants), Phoenix Flora (native plants), San Tan Mountain
Semi-Regional Park, Seven Springs area (Tonto National Forest), Sierra Ancha Wilderness Area (Tonto National Forest), Sierra Estrella Mountains
Regional Park, South Mountain Park, Superstition Mountains Wilderness Area (Tonto National Forest), Thunderbird Semi-Regional Park, Upper San Pedro
River, Usery Mountains Semi Regional Park, West Fork of Oak Creek (Coconino National Forest), and White Tank Mountains Regional Park.
When available, images are included.
Systematic checklists include lists for Arizona Trees & Shrubs, Miscellaneous American Myrtaceae, and Neotropical Systematics.
Suppose you would like to have a checklist of plants from a particular area or county.
You can create a custom checklist from the collections database.
First, check the checkboxes for one or more vascular plant herbarium databases, ASU, U of A, NAU, and Desert Botanical
Garden. Then, under "Locality Criteria," type Arizona in the state space,
and one of the counties (e.g., Maricopa) in the county space. Searching with just these conditions will give you a
county checklist. You may also make a checklist based on key words, such as "Snow Bowl" or "Schnebly Hill" or
"Sycamore Creek." If you do not also designate a county, then you may get specimens from more than one "Sycamore Creek,"
as there happen to be a few in Arizona. If you wish to search multiple counties or multiple keywords, be sure to
separate the criteria with a semicolon. For example, if you want to see all of the plants from Mohave and Yavapai
counties, type in "Mohave; Yavapai." If you wish to see all of the specimens from Schnebly Hill or Sedona, type in
"Schnebly Hill; Sedona." You may also designate an area based on coordinates, but keep in mind some specimens may not have georeference coordinates.
The next step is to query the databases for all the specimens in the designated county or with the designated keywords etc.
This is done by clicking on "SEARCH" at the bottom of the page. Wait a few moments and a list of specimens will appear.
At the top of the page you can click on the tab that says "checklist" and convert the specimens into a checklist organized by family.
You may insert a name in the Taxonomic Keyword Criteria under genus name. This allows you to limit your search to Brickellia of
Schnebly Hill, for instance. You may also create a family checklist for a particular locality. For example, if you would like to
see all of the Brassicaceae from Yuma County, enter "Brassicaceae" in the taxonomic criteria box, and "Yuma" in the county box.
Be sure to checkmark the box that says "Use AZ Taxonomic Thesaurus" for this type of search.
Species Profile Page
After preforming a search as described above, you can display the Species Profile page by clicking on
the scientific in the list or checklist display options. The Species Profile page will display synonyms, family, common names,
images, descriptions, distribution maps, web links, etc.
As an example: Berberis repens
Making Distribution Maps Online
After performing a search as described above, click on the "Map" tab and view specimen
distributions using Google Map. Click on individual dots to bring up collection
information for that particular point.
This page shows the steps in making a packet for extra loose material to be held on an herbarium sheet.
This website shows the steps in making a scientifically
useful herbarium specimen.
Other Efforts:
The ASU herbarium staff makes every effort to respond to requests and inquiries from faculty, staff, students, and the general public. We often participate in
various outreach activities such as instructional tours and field trips for school children, including the SEE ASU! program, in which students tour research laboratories on campus.
Additionally, the ASU herbarium is a regular stop for "University
Sneaker Tours" in which community business-people tour ASU facilities
2-3 times a year. We are also regularly consulted to contribute to the "Ask a Biologist" page operated by ASU's Life Science
Visualization Group as an educational resource for students K-12 and their teachers.
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