The Western Australian Herbarium: Botanical Collections & Their Use in Biodiversity Discovery & Science

Herbaria contain centuries of botanical specimens gathered through time and from around the globe. The Western Australian Herbarium is no different, housing more than 850,000 specimens, mostly from Western Australia. While all the collections data is available online for science and conservation, the Herbarium has begun in earnest to link this data to images of all of the specimens to make the collection even more accessible to researchers, land managers, policy makers, and citizen scientists. The Herbarium collections grow by about 10,000 items a year. These specimens come from various sources, including botanical surveys and the federally-funded Bush Blitz nature discovery program, such as the Wudjari Country (Esperance) Bush Blitz held in

2023. This presentation will highlight the importance of the State's Herbarium collections for documenting the biodiversity of WA and species discovery, the services we provide, and share insights into how we manage the collections for longevity while keeping…