Editorial João Vicente Coffani-Nunes

Abstract

The Brazilian Network of Herbariums (RBH) of the Brazilian Botanical Society (SBB) was formed from the "Herbarium Committee", composed of some curators appointed at each National Botany Congress. A catalog on national herbaria collections was initiated by Dr. Hilda Maria Longhi-Wagner with the assistance of the Data Processing Center of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (CPD/UFRG), and with information provided by Dr. Vinicius de Castro Souza (USP), at the time coordinator of the Herbarium Commission.

Annually, during the National Botany Congress, RBH holds a meeting with the community of curators and those interested in the development of Brazilian herbaria and nominates the members of the Coordinating Committee.

The Brazilian herbarium catalog, information about the curators, contact addresses and the collection, as well as general information about the RBH is available for public consultation at http://www.botanica.org.br/rbh-catalogo.

RBH's mission is to articulate and encourage the development of Brazilian herbaria and their associated and auxiliary collections and aims to expand the dissemination of data on herbaria and also inform about other activities of RBH itself.

Within this context, in 2015, in partnership with Revista Unisanta Biosciense, it produced two historic publications (http://www.botanica.org.br/rbh):

1) Special Edition Herbariums of Brazil - 66th National Botany Congress - Unisanta BioScience – Volume 4, n. 6 (2015).

2) Special Edition Herbarium Networks and Virtual Herbariums in Brazil - 66th National Botany Congress - Unisanta BioScience – Volume 4, n. 7 (2015).

In the publication on “Herbariums of Brazil”, 116 of the herbaria (59% of active herbaria) participated in the publication, while in “Herbarium Networks and Virtual Herbariums”, there were nine articles demonstrating network initiatives and virtual data repatriation.

At the RHB meeting in 2016, at the 67th National Botany Congress, Vitória, ES, it defined the continuity of the work to enhance and disseminate national herbaria, with a focus on extension and non-formal teaching.

With great satisfaction we reached the third publication, the special issue “Botany and Society – Herbariums and scientific dissemination” with 32 articles from herbaria from different regions (table in the annex in .pdf), demonstrating the diversity of actions developed by the herbarium teams nationals with society.

Botanical collections are generally little known and little understood regarding their importance and function. The main work that each collection develops is of little visibility to the lay public, however, many of them also serve the function of combating scientific illiteracy and botanical blindness in our society through courses, lectures, exhibitions and other activities. These projects, in addition to the community outside the institutions, involve undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and teachers collaborating to improve their professional training and social activities.

The result of this dedication is presented below.

We hope that this special issue can inspire and motivate other curators and their teams to initiate scientific dissemination activities, strengthening their collections before institutions and society, and most importantly, collaborating with the democratization of botanical knowledge.

Enjoy everyone!