The focus of this project is on cataloguing the South London Botanical Institute’s British Vascular Plant collection with vice-counties in mind, so we can better locate the geographic coverage of a particular species. In particular, the project is interested in bringing to light what our coverage of London and the South East is in relation to the specimens in this collection.
Vice-County is a mapping system for plant-recording that was introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson in 1852 and hasn’t changed since then. It has the benefit of remaining stable irrespective of boundary changes in relation to local government. The Watsonian vice-counties are individually numbered, there are 112 vice-county boundaries for England, Scotland and Wales. In 1901, Robert Lloyd Praeger created a similar system for Ireland and surrounding Islands.
Volunteers are introduced to handling and arranging herbarium specimens, including reading herbarium sheets and in the Vice County system.
More about the background of the project
In Summer 2024, the South London Botanical Institute began to consider and undertake an overall assessment of its herbarium collections and broader background research. This work was led by Dr. Mark Spencer, collaboration with Dr. Elyssa Livergant, the SLBI’s Director. Mark, a botanist who studied at Kew and Reading, has worked on botanical collections management at the Natural History Museum for many years. He has been recording London Flora for the LNHS and is the BSBI’s vice-county recorder for Middlesex. Mark and Elyssa worked together closely over the last 9 months to assess the collection and its role in the development of the identity of the SLBI.
