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Herbarium digitization project
In the last couple of years the Botanical Society has spent several thousand pounds supporting the Herbaria at Home project in digitizing herbaria with specimens relating to Shropshire. This has resulted in many new records and several interesting finds, including:-
* The only known record of Fallopia dumetorum (Copse Bindweed) in the county;
* Confirmation (by Mike Porter) of an early record of Carex x pseudoaxillaris (otrubae x remota).
* A first county record of Potamogeton gramineus from a ditch near Cole Mere in 1831 (conf. by Chris Preston).
* The first county record of Rorippa microphylla, at The Mere, Ellesmere, by John Bowman in 1831 (conf. Leander Wolstenholme).
* Early species lists for important sites such as Marton Pool SSSI, near Chirbury.
The Herbaria at Home project relies on volunteers digitizing the information on the herbarium labels. Once a record for Shropshire is digitized, we are notified so we can check it and incorporate it into the county database.
We are grateful to all the volunteers who have worked on the web site, and to Shropshire County Council, Natural England and Shropshire Wildlife Trust for helping to fund the work. Also to Andrew Allott and Andrew Agnew for inviting us to work on the Shrewsbury School and Aberystwyth University collections.
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