Herbarium scans of invasive alien plants now available in Q-bank Invasive Plant database
EPPO-Q-bank is a database to support plant pest diagnostic activities. It comprises genomic sequences data of properly documented species and specimens. Currently, data on 283 plant specimens belonging to 80 plant species are available, including 533 sequences. Most of these specimens are held in the collection of the NPPO-NL in Wageningen, the Netherlands. These 283 specimens are also included in the Q-bank Invasive Plant database, which covers a wider range of information when compared to EPPO-Q-bank. In the Q-bank Invasive Plant database extensive information on invasive plant species is available including electronic identification keys, species factsheets and border inspection tools. Recently, all herbarium vouchers held at Wageningen have been scanned at a high resolution (6400 × 9600 pixels) and these images can now be viewed in the database. For specimens not in Wageningen, but at Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden, links will be made available to these scans. In this way users can study morphological traits as complementary information to the molecular ones.
Sources
NPPO Netherlands. Q-bank Invasive Plant database: https://q-bankplants.eu/