Plants of Mongolia – A Virtual Approach: E-taxonomy, Virtual Herbarium and Digital Key

Abstract

This work is based on the long-term research experience between Mongolia and Germany, which resulted in extensive plant collections in both countries. One goal is to provide information access via the Internet to the herbarium specimens available in German plant collections. Up to now, 16,403 records (a fi nding of a species documented by images and/or vouchers) for 1,533 out of 2879 Mongolian vascular plant species are included in the database. For half of the species described for Mongolia scans of herbarium specimens are available. The plant database is searchable for family, scientifi c name, habitat, growth form as well as distribution, and other parameters such as the red list status or the endemic status.

Keywords

• digital information system
• digital multi access key
• fl ora of Mongolia
• herbarium collection
• plant database