The Digital Phytoinformatics : Online Herbarium and Databases of Plants in Gangetic West Bengal and Eastern Himalayas

Dr. Dibyendu Talukdar

E-mail: dibyendutalukdar9@gmail.com

Department of Botany, R.P.M. College (www.rpmcollege.org), Hooghly, West Bengal, India developed a digital platform of dried & preserved herbarium plant specimens comprising medicinal & aromatic plants, RET plants and Invasive/alien plant species, cryptogams. The multifaceted research activities on algal floras and crop plants have been presented. A daily weather update link with IMD has also been provided. The platform is continuously up-graded and user-friendly with free web-accessible data bases. This is the first attempt by any under-graduate degree college in Eastern and N-E India to develop virtual herbarium through digital imaging and scientific documentation using software. More at:
http://www.rpmcdigitalphytoinformatics.com/ 

Indian Institute of Science to Launch 'Online Digital Database' on Flora of Karnataka

Sankara K. Rao

Herbarium JCB, Center for Ecological Sciences
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Bangalore 560012, Karnataka, India
E-mail: bharadwaj@ces.iisc.ernet.in 

Introduction

    A conventional herbarium database maximizes the usefulness of the collection by providing authentic and lasting information. This information can effectively be used for the preservation of species and spaces (hábitats). Presently several herbaria, world over are actively engaged in developing digital databases for their collections. Herbarium at Centre for Ecological Sciences of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore which houses the specimen mainly from Karnataka is likely to be digitized and will be available online very soon.

Panormic view of one geographical region of Karnatka