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Herbarium |
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Group works on
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- Development and maintenance of a standard Herbarium
- Inventorization and identification of plant resources of the Country
- Loan and exchange of herbarium specimens with other Institutions
- Biodiversity Assessments
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Objectives
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To develop and maintain a Herbarium as a National Facility.
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Survey, collection, identification and documentation of the floristic wealth of
the country.
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To maintain active links with other institutions by way of Loan and Exchange of
Herbarium specimens and related literature.
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To develop Computer based databases on plant resources.
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To undertake floristic and revisionary studies on Indian taxa of flowering plants.
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To study and monitor the rare and endangered species in conservation perspectives.
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The National Botanical Research Institute maintains a Herbarium as one of the national
facilities. Herbarium is a place where pressed and dried plant specimens collected
from far and wide are preserved according to some internationally recognized system
along with abundant first-hand field data about plants. Being the largest herbarium
under CSIR system and internationally recognized with its acronym LWG, it is great
filing system for information about plants, both primarily in the form of actual
specimens of plants and secondarily in the form of published information, pictures
and recorded notes catering the needs of students, teachers, scientists, foresters,
and other plant-based professionals. The Herbarium of NBRI today holds 2,25,000
specimens of which 93,144 are of angiosperms, 1,05,000 specimens of lichens, about
3,000 of pteridophytes, 10,000 of bryophytes and 500 of gymnosperms. In addition,
16,000 carpological collections from various parts of country are also preserved.
The herbarium of the Institute also possesses 240 Type specimens and 300 Type photographs.
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The Herbarium serves one and all in the country with basic information on correct
identity and nomenclature of taxa, distribution and abundance of taxa in a given
region and their utilities.
The herbarium is enriched by new collections by the team of scientists attached
to it. Specialists of all groups, viz. flowering plants, lichens, algae and all
others are involved in a number of research activities which also aim at enrichment
of the Herbarium.
The Scientists attached to the Herbarium offer a variety of consultancy services
to professionals from various walks and industries, mostly the plant-based ones.
The services include providing first-hand information on the identity and diversity
assessments on the species of interest, economic utility, wild relatives of cultivated
species, nativity and distribution status of species etc.
There are approximately a little over 100 research papers in standard journals over
the last 5 years, published by the scientists of this group.
During recent past, we have successfully completed two major projects under an international
collaboration, one on Phyllanthus with the Centre for Medical Innovations,
Munich, Germany and the other on Glycine and maize with Monsanto, India.
So far a number of exploration tours have been conducted to the various parts of
the country for detailed inventorying and documentation of the flora. In particular,
the Biodiversity Assessment of Tons Valley, in Garhwal Himalaya, Rajaji National
Park, Corbett Tiger Reserve, Dudhwa National park, Valley of Flowers and other phytogeographically
interesting areas like Netarhat in Bihar and few districts of Jammu & Kashmir,
Andhra Pradesh , Orissa and Uttar Pradesh have been accomplished. Several projects
on the taxa-specific Biodiversity assessments for example revisionary studies on
genera Ixora, Clematis, Podophyllum, Berberis, Pedicularis, Astragalus and
revision on family Oleaceae have been successfully completed. The taxonomic revisions
completed have International relevance and help in revision of the group globally.
These studies have led to a large number of publications in the recent past.
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On Going Activities
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- Maintenance and development of the herbarium.
- Floristic survey and assessment of biodiversity (Flora) of Bhimbetka Forest in Ratapani
Sanctuary of Raisen District (Madhya Pradesh).
- Studies on the biological resources and documentation of traditional knowledge on
Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.
- Assessment of genetic diversity on lesser known/under-utilized wild edible plant
resources of Gangetic plains and their ex-situ conservation.
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Feed Back Required
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- Current awareness of the literature regarding the discovery of new taxa as well
new records
- Details of the availability of the type specimens in various herbaria of the world
- Current publication on the plant taxonomy
- Access to the Database on published illustrations of plants worldwide
- Details of availability of experts on various taxa.
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