Digitizing Herbarium Specimens in Vietnam - From Isolation to Integration

Pictures from the digital imaging station installation and training at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology in Hanoi, Vietnam. In less than a week, the students and staff were producing over fifty high resolution images per hour.

Nguyen The Cuong, Ph.D. showing specimens in the herbarium.

The digital imaging station is assembled.

Digital imaging training with: (standing, left to right)Do Van Hai, MS., Tean Thi Thanh Huong, Vu Anh Thuong (seated, left to right) Duong Thi Hoan, Ph.D. Nguyen the Cuong, Ph.D., and Nguyen Van Hieu.

Do Thi Xuyen, Ph.D. digitizing specimens with Nguyen Van Hieu.

Vu Anh Thuong preparing a specimen for Nguyen Thanh Huong, Ph.D. to digitize.

Full specimen image

100% detail

Label

Irish Potato Famine Mystery Solved Using Herbarium Specimens

Scientists at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich have used plant samples collected in the mid-19th Century to identify the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine.

Read more here

Taking the Vietnam Flora from Isolation to Integration - JRS Foundation Grant

I am in Hanoi, Vietnam visiting the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology as part of Doug Daly's "Taking the Vietnam Flora from Isolation to Integration" grant funded by the JRS Foundation.

I have just concluded installing a digital imaging workstation and three days of digital imaging training, including the Nikon D800E and tethered capture via Adobe Lightroom 4.3.

The staff and students at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources are already producing impressive images.

Hibiscus sagittifolius

100% detail

Herbarium Vietnamensis

Conserve Useful Plant Resources - Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World

Dr. Ina Vandebroek recently shared a Global Call for Action to Conserve Useful Plant Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge that was developed during a workshop held at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

A perfect introduction to the upcoming exhibition at The New York Botanical Garden about healing plants like the cinchona tree, the source of quinine, which treats malaria, and white willow, whose bark leads to the production of aspirin.

Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World May 18 - September 8, 2013

Help conserve plant resources - join one of our online expeditions.

Copystand Tutorial - Lightroom Tethtered Capture - Nikon D800-E

Here is a page from a step-by-step illustrated guide to assembling a copystand and how to use Adobe Lightroom's tethered capture feature with the Nikon D800-E camera.

You can view or download the complete guide here