Herbarium project results presented to local scientists |26 August 2013
A half-day workshop was held recently to present the main results of the herbarium project to the local scientific community.
This botanical project has been funded by the GEF Small Grants Programme and was carried out through collaboration between local NGO Plant Conservation Action group (PCA) and the Natural History Museum of Seychelles.
The results of this two and a half year project have been impressive. Charles Morel, the herbarium curator at the museum, pointed out that many people think a herbarium is just a collection of old dried plants, and only of value to specialist botanists. But this is not so at all, as not only is the herbarium a conservatory of Seychelles plants with each specimen telling its own story, it also contains records of the country’s complete flora, along with photos of many species and numerous botanical references. It is also a place for training and research, and a place where people can come to identify unknown plants found in their gardens or the forest. And, as a result of this two year project, the National Herbarium is now well equipped, with well trained staff, a huge database of plant information and established collaborations with both local and overseas botanists, NGOs, museums, universities and government organisations. One of the results of collaboration with the Paris Herbarium has been the acquisition of precious specimens, including a type specimen of the Seychelles pitcher plant, Nepenthes pervillei, collected in 1841 by Pervillé himself. The Botanical Garden of Belgium also contributed greatly to the project by donating many botanical books and floras.
Dr Bruno Senterre presented an overview of the enormous amount of work which has been put into the development of the digital database of plants, including details and review of not only the herbarium’s collection of plant specimens but also plant records from all the main botanical reference books and reports written about the Seychelles flora. Also developed has been a digital plant photo gallery. This new virtual herbarium is online at www.seychellesplantgallery.com. Everyone is encouraged to view this website and assist in completing this useful tool for identifying plant species in the Seychelles by coming forward with missing photos, e.g. garden plants, weeds and agricultural crops. Bruno explained the intricacies of how it is possible to identify unknown species using this virtual gallery, herbarium resources and the internet. He also referred to the botanical field training of almost 20 young local scientists, some of whom have written or co-authored published articles. Another indirect achievement of the project has been the discovery of new species records for Seychelles, both native and exotic, and more excitingly a couple of new plant species.
Although the Natural History Museum has been the main location for the project, Katy Beaver described the significant outreach which formed another focus of the project. For example, in 2012 our locally produced film was shown on TV - “Antigonn-Zakobe: Eski ou konn bann plant Sesel?” and a Plant Photo Competition was held, with good participation. Much use was made of the competition photos in the digital Plant Gallery and also in a large exhibition all about plants. Entitled “Our Lives Depend on Plants - Nou Lavi i Depan lo Laplant”, the exhibition contained many interactive exhibits which attracted a lot of attention and helped people to test their knowledge of plants in a fun way. To enable more communities to view the exhibition, it travelled to several large hotels and community centres, and some of the displays have also appeared at environment theme day events, as well as at the National Day Expo in June, thus reaching a large number of people.
Concluding the workshop, some ideas were presented about how to ensure a sustainable future for the National Herbarium, which as result of the ‘Herbarium Project’ has become a very valuable asset for Seychelles.
It is hoped that through the activities of the Herbarium Project, Seychellois will have learnt and will continue to learn more about plants and their values, and realise that plants are not simply those green things in our environment. The virtual plant gallery is a new tool for identifying the many plant species we have in Seychelles, so make use of this tool. The exhibition is being put onto a CD for use in schools, and parents are also encouraged to take their children to the Natural History Museum to introduce them to the wonders of our plant world.