Re-curation of the seed plants fluid collection at the Natural History Museum

Over three thousand seed plants fluid collections stored at the Natural History Museum have recently been re-curated. We have addressed the condition and conservation needs of the specimens by replacing broken jars/lids, rewriting labels and topping up the specimens with 70% IMS. The collections are from countries around the world representing 189 families and 1359 taxa (genus and species). There are 41 type specimens as well as some important orchids from the 1930s. An index to the collections has been compiled in an Excel spreadsheet and by making these collections accessible on the Museum’s public data portal at (https://data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/the-seed-plants-fluidcollection-at-the-natural-history-museum), we would like to draw attention to experts in various family groups such as Orchidaceae and families unknown where further taxonomic identifications would help us to determine the collections and enhance our floristic knowledge around the world