Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Bringing yesterday’s plants to digital life

A hybrid of the family Orchidaceae, genus Cattleya collected from the U. of I. floriculture greenhouses, January 1941.

A hybrid of the family Orchidaceae, genus Cattleya collected from the U. of I. floriculture greenhouses, January 1941.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – It’s about 65 degrees Fahrenheit in the herbarium, and the archival paper on which the plant specimen is mounted feels soft between my cold fingers. My hands are instantly warmed as I place the sheet in the light box. I check the computer monitor; everything looks good. I hit the spacebar.

Click.

The camera captures an image of the plant and sends it directly to a folder that will later be uploaded to an online database of worldwide plant specimens.

And, just like that, the analog becomes digital, and the past becomes present in preparation for the future.

Calypso bulbosa, found four miles west of Vermilion Bay, Ontario, Canada. Collected June 1, 1968.

Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

Delete

Edit embedded media in the Files Tab and re-insert as needed.

I repeat this process 500 times daily, on average. And, while it is easy to do this type of work quickly and quietly, it amounts to something much bigger than even the Illinois Natural History Survey Herbarium, which is the 10th-largest in the country. This imaging process is part of Endless Forms, a National Science Foundation digitization project. Our part of the project aims to digitize specimens from across the country in three groups: succulent plants, carnivorous plants and epiphytes.

Arisaema atrorubens, Peoria County, Illinois. Collected May 2, 1957.

Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

Delete

Edit embedded media in the Files Tab and re-insert as needed.

I had to learn what an epiphyte was for this project. It turns out, I was growing them in my own home. Epiphytes include air plants, a botanical enigma with no roots, long spiraling leaves and the ability to live off of air and rainfall. They are often seen in trees, but they don’t use the trees as an energy source at all. Rather, they use the trees for support. Orchids fall into this group, too. From bright purples to fading pink speckled patterns, orchids in the herbarium are exciting to find and are a brilliant example of the endless forms this project is working to conserve and celebrate.

Gaultheria glomerata, collected in Venuzuela, Jan. 20, 1993.

Gaultheria glomerata, collected in Venuzuela, Jan. 20, 1993.

These plant groups were chosen in part because of the dramatic environments they call home, and how each plant’s form is adapted to its environment. By observing how they have evolved over time, we can determine how likely they are to become endangered as the changing climate alters the environment.

A specimen of the genus Furcraea, collected in 1918 in Barbados.

A specimen of the genus Furcraea, collected in 1918 in Barbados.

The types of plants I encounter never cease to amaze me, and while I can’t identify many of them, it’s rewarding to see a few that I recognize. Venus flytraps are one of my favorites. The herbarium happens to have an entire folder of these that I get to work with this summer.

While the scent that attracts insects to this particular plant tends to be absent in the specimens, the spines that the Venus flytrap uses to capture its prey remain intact. In nature, these spines are usually red and green, but dehydration and preservation have completely blackened them.

Fourcroya gigantea, collected in 1904 in Mexico.

Fourcroya gigantea, collected in 1904 in Mexico.

Succulent plants also are easy to recognize. These plants store water in their leaves and stems, giving them a swollen look when they’re alive. While the rounded shapes of their leaves are preserved in the herbarium specimens, photographs of the plants that are sometimes included alongside the plants show what they looked like when they were alive, making them much easier to identify. In this way, photography has preserved much of the information that the dried, mounted specimens have lost.

Tilandsia polystacha, collected in Pine Crest, Florida, Feb. 18, 1930.

Tilandsia polystacha, collected in Pine Crest, Florida, Feb. 18, 1930.

The herbarium specimens look flat and brown, but the photographs reveal their original colors: turquoises, purples, greens and reds. The photos also give them context, to help scientists better understand how the plant existed in 3D space.

While it’s sometimes difficult to get good photos of the specimens – I spent 30 minutes one day pulling cactus spines out of my fingers – it is rewarding to know that my work will help conserve these beautiful forms in the wild for future generations to enjoy.

Editor’s notes:

According to the NSF, “The ‘Endless Forms’ Thematic Collections Network, composed of 17 collaborating U.S. herbaria from 11 states, will digitize approximately 2 million specimens belonging to some of the most interesting plant species on Earth.”

The Illinois Natural History Survey is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.

Subscribe to Behind the Scenes for short blog posts, photos and videos from Illinois faculty, researchers, students and staff about their work and lives. Send an email with “SUBSCRIBE BTS” in the subject line.

 

Read Next

Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Social sciences Male and female student embracing on the quad with flowering redbud tree and the ACES library in the background. Photo by Michelle Hassel

Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to some popular culture writers and online posts by discouraged singles lamenting their inability to find romantic partners, dating is “broken,” fractured by the social isolation created by technology, pandemic lockdowns and potential partners’ unrealistic expectations. Yet two studies of college students conducted a decade apart found that their ideas about […]

Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Nishant Garg, center, is joined by fellow researchers, from left: Yujia Min, Hossein Kabir, Nishant Garg, center, Chirayu Kothari and M. Farjad Iqbal, front right. In front are examples of clay samples dissolved at different concentrations in a NaOH solution. The team invented a new test that can predict the performance of cementitious materials in mere 5 minutes. This is in contrast to the standard ASTM tests, which take up to 28 days. This new advance enables real-time quality control at production plants of emerging, sustainable materials. Photo taken at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Fred Zwicky / University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Researchers develop a five-minute quality test for sustainable cement industry materials

A new test developed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can predict the performance of a new type of cementitious construction material in five minutes — a significant improvement over the current industry standard method, which takes seven or more days to complete. This development is poised to advance the use of next-generation resources called supplementary cementitious materials — or SCMs — by speeding up the quality-check process before leaving the production floor.

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010