From the Herbarium to the Field, and Back to the Lab and the Herbarium

Filling Gaps in Our Biodiversity Knowledge

Herbaria harbor a permanent record of plant and fungal diversity in place and time. While millions of specimens have been collected, digitized, and made available, we continue to describe new species and find new patterns—a clear indication that more collections are still needed. Interestingly, herbaria can also be used to identify important knowledge gaps, and to prioritize areas, taxa and seasons to target for new collections. In this webinar, Fabián Michelangeli will present a few examples of how identifying these needs works in practice, focusing on the distribution and evolution of the plant family Melastomataceae in tropical America.