Explore the World’s Largest Native Hawaiian Plant Collection Online

Metrosideros tremluloides. Photos: Courtesy of Bishop Museum

The largest native Hawaiian plant collection in the world can now be viewed online, thanks to the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum’s digitization efforts. The Plants of Hawai‘i database of 180,000-plus specimens is searchable, with entries detailing not only the scientific data but also Hawaiian names and cultural uses.

Image: Courtesy of Bishop Museum

Herbarium Pacificum, as the museum calls its botany collection, was started in 1889, the same year the museum opened, with dried ferns and Hawaiian wood specimens. The museum began cataloging the specimens in a searchable database in 1994, with imaging added to the process in 2012.

Today, the collection contains 600,000 specimens from around the world, with about 500,000 of them in the herbarium’s database. And about 3,000 new specimens are submitted each year from Hawai‘i and across the Pacific.

SEE ALSO: Green Day: Native Plants From a Photographer’s Perspective

The online database housed on plantsofhawaii.org contains most of the Hawai‘i specimens and currently stands at about 180,000 entries. Images of a select few endangered species have not been shared publicly to keep their locations safe. Fungi and bryophytes (lichens, mosses, hornworts, and liverworts) are also not in the database, though the latter are being digitized.

The Plants of Hawai‘i website is not only an impactful tool for scientists and researchers—anyone can use it to look up plants by name, description or island. An entry will list information like taxonomy and distribution and will include Hawaiian names, cultural uses, specimen images and field photos when available.

Pneumatopteris pendens. Photos: Courtesy of Bishop Museum

Under the main search bar is a link labeled Simple Checklist Builder, which features flora statistics. You can drill down to each island and find out how many plants are endemic, indigenous, naturalized or only found in cultivation. Scroll down to find a checklist of all the plant species in Hawai‘i, with each entry linked to the species’s webpage.

“Our hope is that through PlantsOfHawaii.org, we can encourage both experts in their field, as well as citizen scientists, to join in the effort to better understand—and protect—our native flora,” says Barbara Kennedy, Bishop Museum’s Botany collection manager. “Keiki wishing to know more about our ‘āina and the plants in their backyards and gardens are especially welcome to explore our digital resource.”

Photo: Courtesy of Bishop Museum

The Plants of Hawai‘i website will be updated regularly. And since the herbarium receives new specimens all the time, it needs volunteers to help digitize them. If you’d like to give feedback on the website or volunteer with the digitization project, contact Bishop Museum at botany@bishopmuseum.org.

Start exploring the botany collection at plantsofhawaii.org.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice St., bishopmuseum.org, @bishopmuseum