Lalbagh starts work on herbarium

The horticulture department has started working on a physical as well as a digital herbarium for Lalbagh Botanical Gardens.

A herbarium refers to the scientific documentation of preserved plant specimens. The project is called ‘Plant Wealth of Lalbagh’, and it will feature Bengaluru’s first virtual herbarium.

“It will involve collecting specimens in various stages, updating the nomenclature, labelling the specimens with all relevant data, among other steps. The specimens will accompany photographs of respective plants with GPS data,” shares Kusuma G, deputy director of horticulture (Lalbagh).

The herbarium is a step towards establishing a “centre for excellence for the study of garden plants in
Bengaluru”, adds Kusuma.

A team of taxonomists started working on the project about six months ago, under the guidance of K R Keshava Murthy, a plant taxonomist and expert in biodiversity and ecology. So far, the project has documented 950 plant and tree specimens out of the 2,950 specimens currently present in Lalbagh. The public will have access to the herbarium in 2025, shares M Jagadeesh, joint director of horticulture (Lalbagh).

“Documentation in this format will help us keep a record of trees which might disappear due to climatic reasons. It will also help us in determining the age of the trees,” adds Kusuma.