Historical and Contemporary Herbaria as a Source of Data in Plant Taxonomy and Phytogeography Research: An Example from Poland

Abstract

The art of drying plants has a long tradition. It was already known in the Middle Ages as a form of documenting flora. It began to develop more intensively in Europe in the 16th century. This method of documenting plant collections quickly gained recognition among scientists. Its role and importance has changed throughout historical periods. The current study presents a short history and resources of Polish and European herbaria against the background of world data. It primarily focuses on indicating their contemporary importance in research in plant taxonomy and geography, as well as on the current situation of herbaria and problems identified using the example of Polish herbaria.

Keywords

• plant collections
• herbarium data
• taxonomy
• phytogeography
• herbarium specimens