Digitising Kew's Collections

Taking Kew’s Herbarium and Fungarium online for everyone across the globe to access.

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Project complete
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Specimens digitised
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Staff working on project
Herbarium collection digitsed (out of 7m)
23%
Fungarium collection digitised (out of 1.25m)
34%

Kew is embarking on one of the biggest projects in its history with the launch of this multimillion pound project to digitise its entire collection of more than eight million plant and fungal specimens.

These collections are essential for many for many research projects combating biodiversity loss and assisting with conservation efforts as they tell us what plant and fungal material was found where, when, and by whom. Preserved specimens can be analysed anatomically, genetically, and chemically, but at present many can only be accessed by visiting Kew.

The aim of Kew’s Digitisation Project is to transform our Science Collections into a global online resource by digitising all 7 million Herbarium and 1.25 million Fungarium specimens, enabling some of the most critical challenges facing humanity, such as climate change and habitat degradation, to be addressed.

This will involve digitising the specimens and creating a portal to provide external access to these specimens.

Data portal - see our collections

All our Digitsed collections and associated taxonomic information is now freely accessible on our new Data Portal. 

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