Digitized Herbarium

The TWU Herbarium (Index Herbarium code: TCSW) is part of the Texas-Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria formed in 2008. Under the guidance of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas in Fort Worth, TORCH obtained NSF - Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections funding in 2017 to digitize (image, transcribe, and georeference) vascular plants specimens collected in Texas and Oklahoma, deposited in herbaria within those two states as well as those out-of-region institutions with significant relevant holdings.

The project is significant for studying biome evolution and the impact of global change on regional biota, thus enhancing habitat conservation and management and contributing to a wide range of biodiversity applications.

The TWU Herbarium is one of 46 herbaria contributing to this project. So far, 90% of the vascular plants in the herbarium have been digitized. To view the digitized specimens, go to the digitized TWU Herbarium TORCH Data Portal and follow these steps:

• On the top menu bar, click Search and choose Search Collections.
• Scroll down to Texas Woman’s University Herbarium and click on ‘more info.’
• At the bottom of the page is a box labeled Extra Statistics.
• Click on Show Family Distribution, which will open a list of plant families in the box labeled Taxon Distribution.
• Choose a family name. Scroll down to ‘Taxon Distribution’ to a list of plant genera.
• Choose a plant genus and click on the highlighted number next to its name to view the species page. Here you find two options:
  • Option 1 – Click on the highlighted plant name to get to full-color images of the plant and a general description.
  • Option 2 – Click ‘Full Record Details’ or click the specimen’s image on the right side of the screen which will take you to the herbarium specimen. There you can click ‘Open Medium OR Large Image’ to see details. If you click ‘Open Large Image’ you can enlarge the image by clicking again on the image – the cursor will show a + (plus sign). You can scroll the image. Click again on the image, this time the cursor will show a – (minus sign) and take you back to the whole specimen image.