The History and New Development of the Herbarium,Shanghai Botanical Garden
The Herbarium,Shanghai Botanical Garden was officially founded on 16 May,1977.The first collection consists of about 1530 specimens gathered during the plant introduction from Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang Province,Mount Huangshan in Anhui Province,and Dayu county in Jiangxi Province for the creation of the Shanghai Botanical Garden.The herbarium code was reg-istered as'SG'according to the Index Herbariorum Sinicorum(1993).From 1985 through to 2021,specimen collecting activity and related research in the herbarium slowed down due to an emphasis shift on other priorities.When the herbarium collection was moved in August of 2022 to a new building with new equipment,and temperature-and humidity-controlled rooms,the collection started to grow again.Since then,the number of specimens has increased from 18,216 to 22,812.Moreover,as one of the small to medium-sized herbaria,the Herbarium(SG)has started to recruit citizens as volunteers.The specimen digitalization work collecting with the National Specimen Information Infrastructure started in 2023 with the help of the volunteers.Infor-mation on 5686 specimens has been added to the online system,while 4077 specimens were photographed.The Herbarium has produced and given a series of courses and activities on specimen collecting,illustration,and identification to 276 primary and middle school students.With these efforts,the Herbarium(SG)is looking forward to showcasing its new volunteer program as a way to contribute to the revival and development of small to medium-sized herbaria across the country,and joining the work of biodiversity conservation,plant science research and related popular science education.