File:CONN herbarium milestone.jpg

Abstract: The George Safford Torrey Herbarium at the University of Connecticut initiated a major effort to database its entire vascular plant herbarium in 2009 supported by an NSF Collection grant. A small army of over fifty undergraduate students digitized most of the specimens within the five-year grant period. Since the grant ended, the pace of digitization has been steady at about 5,000 specimens per year. We are looking forward to celebrating our milestone 200,000th databased specimen in early 2022. An undergraduate student conducting an independent study in the herbarium will collect, mount, and digitize a specimen of a native shrub (Lindera benzoin L. Blume, Lauraceae) for this honor. This milestone provides an opportunity to highlight the mission of the collection to the university community and to draw attention to the importance of student participation in documenting our native flora.