FloraDiva

The Herbarium Tridentinum

The MUSE Herbarium, known internationally as Herbarium Tridentinum (TR), houses more than 150,000 specimens of plants, mosses, lichens, and fungi, collected from the early 1800s to the present day. While the botanical specimens primarily originate from the Trentino region, a significant portion comes from the rest of Italy and various international locations across all continents. The most abundant type of specimens consists of exsiccata (dried preparations of vascular plants). The overall size and scientific relevance of its collections make it a highly significant herbarium, particularly for describing the plant biodiversity of the Trentino territory and its evolution over the last two centuries. The Herbarium is organized into 77 different corpora, many of which are linked to the work of prominent 19th and 20th-century botanists, such as Facchini, Ambrosi, Gelmi, Venturi, Porta, Bresadola, and Fenaroli.

Learn more about the herbarium and browse the MUSE collections online catalogue

The FloraDiva project

The FloraDiva project is dedicated to the botanical heritage of MUSE. Its general objective is to make the TR Herbarium digitally accessible and to enhance its value through innovative technologies, focusing on curation, digitization, in-depth research, and dissemination of knowledge, with the aim of:

• Returning the historical-naturalistic heritage to the public, making it fully accessible through innovative digital communication approaches;
• Stimulating curiosity and interest in these assets by highlighting their scientific and cultural relevance;
• Conveying informative and educational content inherent in the heritage, including via remote access, to promote the cultural growth of society and increase awareness of the value of nature and its conservation;
• Supporting biodiversity research by facilitating data access for the scientific community;
• Operating, also through the testing of innovative approaches, to improve the efficiency of collection management and digitization processes.

Learn more about the project

The transcription project

The Zooniverse platform, with all its features, allows us to put all the above points into practice, enhancing and digitising the samples in the Herbarium with the help of volunteers who want to immerse themselves in the project, making it possible to carry out research that would otherwise not be possible in a relatively short time.