UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY PCR amplification of DNA extracted from plants is sometimes difficult due to the presence of inhibitory compounds. An effective method to overcome the inhibitory effect of compounds that contaminate DNA from difficult plant specimens is needed. • METHODS AND RESULTS The effectiveness of a PCR additive reagent containing trehalose, bovine serum albumin (BSA),...

Responses of plant traits to climate changes are complex, which could be mirrored by the investigations of herbarium specimens. By examining specimens of Rosa and Cotoneaster species collected since 1920s in Hengduan Mountains, we analyzed the changes of flowering phenology and flower size in the past century when climate changes were considered to be intensified. We found that flowering phenol...

Activities: We have photographed plant samples from the OSU Herbarium and collected and scanned samples of the corresponding species from trees in Oregon. We have implemented and experimented with algorithms for matching shapes. First, we studied dynamic time warping (edit distance) algorithms for comparing the shapes of two isolated leaves. Then we considered matching isolated leaves against i...

CROFlora is a multi-user database application for species-oriented and specimen-ori­ ented systematic and taxonomic work on Croatian flora. It is designed for dealing with all kinds of data that are commonly used in systematic botany and floristic work. CROFlora comprises several main modules: (1) taxonomy, (2) herbarium, (3) literature, (4) chorology and (5) related data, such as ecology and m...

A well-timed phenology is essential for plant growth and reproduction, but species-specific phenological strategies are still poorly understood. Here, we use a common garden approach to compare biannual leaf-out data for 495 woody species growing outdoors in Munich, 90% of them not native to that climate regime. For three species, data were augmented by herbarium dates for 140-year-long time se...

The paper reviews the results of detailed revision herbarium material genus Piptatherum from Poaceae collection kept in Herbarium National Museum Bosnia and Herzegovina (SARA). Revision P. Beauv. is presented, with brief nomenclature citations key for identification. original photographs distributional map, accompany synopsis each taxon: holciforme (M. Bieb.) Roem. & Schult. subsp. , mi...

In this study, we carry out a revision of the Italian specimens belonging to Juncus L. subgenus Agathryon Raf. sect. Tenageia Dumort stored in Herbarium Centrale Italicum Museum Natural History University Florence. By re-examining 650 present, find that all taxa section are present herbarium. This work also allows us highlight several novelties concerning species distribution at regional level,...

Understanding the effects of climate change on phenological structure plant communities will require measuring variation in sensitivity among thousands co‐occurring species across regions. Herbarium collections provide vast resources with which to do this, but may also exhibit biases as sources data. Despite general recognition these caveats, validation herbarium‐based estimates against obtaine...