UC.PT





ISIKey - Interactive Seed Identification Key

Funding: Department of Life Sciences & Faculty of Sciences and Technology; PORBIOTA.

Duration: January 2017- .

Proposal: ISIKey is a project developed by the Herbarium of the University of Coimbra (COI) for easy seed identification through user-friendly tools that ease access to scientific information. The motto for the project was the Herbarium seed collection of c. 6,000 accessions, mainly of Portuguese taxa. ISIKey was initiated in 2017 with the Portuguese native flora, being expanded in 2019 to embrace the flora of the Island of Príncipe (São Tomé and Príncipe) in a partnership with the Príncipe Biosphere Reserve.

Plants for Portugal: securing an European heritage

Funding: Department of Life Sciences & Faculty of Sciences and Technology.

Duration: 5 years; starting in April 2015.

Proposal: To optimise the Portuguese collection of flowering plants at COI following the changes in the country’s flora richness and distribution as a consequence of the major forest fires since the mid-1980s. Task 1: Restoration of selected plant families in the Herbarium (Phase 1: Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Liliaceae, Scrophulariaceae); Task 2: Digitising restored specimens; Task 3: Assessing and collecting taxa poorly represented in the collection.

Revive seed collection

Funding: Department of Life Sciences & Faculty of Sciences and Technology.

Duration: January 2016- .

Proposal: Task 1: To curate the existing collection of c. 3000 taxa /accessions; Task 2: To expand the collection to include c. 3500 new accessions; Task 3: To database the whole collection.

Willkomm Herbarium. Historical value: Old Label Specimen

Funding: € 10.000, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.

Duration: 9 months; completed.

Proposal: Willkomm is a main collector in the herbarium but he also assembled specimens from other specialists. There are 50 Spanish collectors, 6 Portuguese, but most are German and French in a total of c. 510 . Most labels on specimens are handwritten, sometimes almost impossible to interpret, especially so those written in sütterlin, a form of the old German cursive script. This is an excellent opportunity to make a major contribution to the research on other historical collections throughout the Mediterranean.

Results: A catalogue of (1) the handwriting and signature of the collectors and other botanists in the Herbarium of Willkomm, plus (2) the biographical information on these specialists. The virtual catalogue in the internet site of the Herbarium of the University of Coimbra assists researchers in the interpretation of handwritten notes and annotations in the Mediterranean herbaria. (see XX)

Willkomm Herbarium: a historical collection online

Funding: € 143.000, PTDC/BIA-QOR/66755/2006.

Duration: 36 months; completed.

Proposal: To database, digitise and make available in the Internet site of COI the whole collection of H.M. Willkomm (c. 27.000 specimens); also to run a relevant and well represented trial on the restoration of this historical collection. This collection was the basis for the very first Flora of Spain. It contains many valuable type specimens of Iberian taxa that need to be consulted by taxonomists working on the on-going Madrid edited Flora iberica project.

Results: specimens available in the Herbarium Catalogue

Conservation of aromatic and medicinal plants in the Natural Park of Estrela Mountain

Funding: € 189.000 (National Strategic Reference Framework-Mais Centro), 2009-11.

Duration: 24 months, completed.

Proposal: To promote local development and science education based on sound research on local medicinal plants.

Results: Medicinal properties of essential oils are being tested, a germplasm bank is being constructed, a field for tests is being developed AND a local herbarium fully connected to COI is being created. The book Plantas Aromáticas e Medicinais do Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela. Guia Etnobotânico was published on the aromatic and medicinal plants of the Park.

Multidisciplinary investigation on higher altitudinal grasses; emphasis on taxonomic status and conservation

Funding: € 79.000, POCTI/BIA-BDE/60937/2004.

Duration: 36 months, completed.

Proposal: To investigate the altitude grasslands in the Natural Park of Estrela Mountain, some part of a biogenetic reserve. Floristic composition of Poaceae and its variation with altitude was assessed and recovery after fire investigated. Environmental education was also a strong component.

Results for COI: All vouchers specimens are deposited at COI; they were databased (see also http://www.uc.pt/grasses/ ).

Plant diversity in Angola: a database of the family Leguminosae

Funding: € 22.875, POCTI/BIA/11149/2002.

Duration: 36 months, completed.

Proposal: To compile and analyze the data on family Leguminosae in Angola, based on the material in 2 Portuguese Herbaria (COI and LISC), and to make this information available to Angola and the international scientific community in general. The Leguminosae, the third largest family of flowering plants, are most diverse in the tropics and subtropics; in Angola has great importance, being represented by c. 930 taxa.

Results: The information on the 6.156 specimens at COI is now is part of the online catalogue of COI; 13.620 specimens were databased in total.

Flora Zambesiaca

Funding: Various, including Portugal.

Duration: 1960– .

Proposal: Exell at the British Museum and Carrisso at Coimbra initiated this project aimed to publish the Flora of the area lying astride the Zambezi River drainage system, which involves Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is an enormous international undertaking to revise the plant diversity of this area and publish 14 volumes divided into 50 parts; COI collaborates with specimens for research and with publications of some of its researchers.

Results: c. 88% is published; of which 38 are published. The project site is accessed through the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html . Click here for taxa search. http://apps.kew.org/efloras/advsearch.do