Projects

Two projects concerned with the digitization of the herbarium holdings have recently been launched —

• DigiBotA • a project for the digitization of botanical specimens with focus on type collections or otherwise important collections has been launched late August 2004. Funding partly comes from GBIF seed money through the DIGIT programm.
Further information can be obtained from Heimo Rainer

Participating Institutions

INatura / Dornbirn / Herbarium BREG
Karl-Franzens-University of Graz / Graz / Herbarium GZU
Steiermärkisches Landesmuseum Joanneum / Graz / Herbarium GJO
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum / Innsbruck / Herbarium IBF
Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum / Linz / Herbarium LI
Museum of Natural History Vienna / Vienna / Herbarium W
University of Vienna / Herbarium WU

• A PilotProject • financed by BMBWK and BMLFUW — coordinated by Austrian Federal Environmet Agency - UBA as its main target has to setup a network of biodiversity related databases of Austrian institutions and present a common portal on the internet for querying and display of the contents.
Further information can be obtained from the coordinator - Martin Götzl or Heimo Rainer

• Visits • and studies of material at both Viennese herbaria are much encouraged and can be facilitated through the SYNTHESYS programm.
Applications can be placed online.

other activities at our institution

Modern activities in plant systematics at our institute have led to the accumulation of most valuable materials in certain groups, e.g., Achillea, Annonaceae, Bromeliaceae, Cactaceae, Gesneriaceae, Rubiaceae, and Scrophulariaceae, or from special regions, e.g. the Alps, the Caucasus, Ionian Islands (Greece), Costa Rica, Canary Islands, and the Hawaiian archipelago.

The institute's herbarium is involved in numerous research projects, both national and international. Aside from the Flora of China and Flora Hellenica projects, it is the main basis for the ongoing Flora of Austria project. It further serves as a reference for the project of "Mapping of the Flora of Central Europe" not only for depositing recently collected specimens but also for the evaluation of vegetation changes during the past 120 years.

Recent work on Meliaceae as a focus from the department of phytochemistry included a detailed study of the genus Aglaia.

The herbarium WU is frequently visited by foreign researchers to study our holdings. More than 200 loan shipments from our collections are sent every year to recognized institutions (cf. Index Herbariorum) worldwide and many are received from abroad.