Virtual Herbarium

Virtual Herbarium Project

Cataloging our plant life

With about 10,000 species of plant in the Atlantic Rainforest, it is at times difficult to recognize all the ones you might meet during your stay, so are putting together a identification gallery in the form of an on-line virtual herbarium. Of course, we don't expect to get all the 10,000 in there - 1,000 would already be a huge work - but with your help we'll just go on adding new ones to the herbarium until there's no more room. It could take a while, but we're pretty patient.

This is what we are aiming for: this is sample done for us by artist Beverly Pearce. (You can see more of her work here).

Ongoing work

Identifying plants to be photographed.

Photographing the plants.

Editing the photos to the format required for the herbarium.

Current priorities

The 50 commonest trees of Iracambi.

Skills and expertise needed

Good photographic skills

Patience

Physically fit

Well organised

Able to work on their own initiative

Enjoy working outdoors

Time frame

This is a project that will never end, we hope. The limit will be virtual space, and for the foreseeable future, that is not a problem. You can participate in this project at any time: at different seasons, the plants have different things to show and different plants appear, so you can enjoy them any time, and every time wil be different.

During the wet season it get more difficult to get around and you need to worry about keeping your equipment dry - but if you want to see plants in bud or in full leaf, it's got to be then! The dry season is a good time to photograph flowers and seeds.

Project update

This is a new project that we have only just started, so we can't tell you much about it yet - just come and make history here, and then you can write this part for us!

How to apply

If you are interested in applying to volunteer on this project, you need to e-mail us on volunteers@iracambi.com with an up to date copy of your CV/Resume and give us the following details:

How do you feel you can benefit the project?
What interests you about our project?
What relevant experience and interests do you have?
What other interests do you have?
What expectations do you have from your time here?
What language skills do you have?
What date are you planning to come to Iracambi and how long are you going to stay?
How did you find out about Iracambi?

We look forward to hearing from you soon.