AVH – Australia’s Virtual Herbarium

Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH) is an on-line botanical information resource, providing access to the wealth of data associated with scientific plant specimens in each Australian herbarium.1

Description

By consolidating the combined data of Australia’s herbaria, the AVH can show a nation-wide view of the botanical information. Most data related to specimens are stored by the custodial institution, and there will be some resources, such as the scientific names database (Australian Plant Names Index, APNI) which is common to all.

Australia's Virtual Herbarium provides access to species pages for plants, algae and fungi of Australia.

The AVH is a collaborative project of Australian State, Territory and Commonwealth herbaria through the Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH).

Function

• Visualisation tools
  • Maps
  • Images
• Taxonomy
  • Identification tools
• User interface
  • Personal use
  • Visual presentation

Why use this tool?

• Easy and quick access to plant information
• Location and mapping of rare and threatened species
• Correct naming of plants for science, conservation, medicine, agriculture and horticulture
• Historical and baseline information for revegetation projects
• Inspiration and enjoyment of Australia's native vegetation
• Biological information for seed collection and fauna management
• Early notification of weed species
• Better understanding of our natural heritage
• Bioprospecting and commercial utilisation of native flora, bushfoods and natural medicines
• Selection of suitable conservation reserves
• Prioritisation of resources for collecting and biodiversity surveys
• Informed environmental planning
• Historical and heritage information 2

Who will use this tool?

• Data creation
  • Experts - taxonomy
• Data capture
  • Curators
• Data users
  • Expert
  • Interest groups
  • General public
• Some botanical skills are required

How will the tool be used?

• Online search tool
• Requires accurate scientific name – genus and species
• Herbarium specimens can be displayed on a map
• Data format: HISPID, HTML, CSV or text
• Data delivery: emailed, displayed in browser, mapped or downloadable file

Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

• Data source
• User’s machine

When could this tool be used?

• Before data is made available to ALA
• At the time of a user request

Availability

• AVH: http://www.anbg.gov.au/avh/
• Help: http://www.anbg.gov.au/chah/avh/help/index.html
• Cost: free
• Copyright: personal non-commercial use. Images can be used on non-commercial websites

  http://www.anbg.gov.au/copyright.html

Comments

• The AVH has similarities to OZCAM – Online Zoological Collections of Australian Museums.
• The ALA may use some of the concepts of AVH
• Species pages are not available for many plants