Pteridophytes

Overview

Pteridophytes groups 22 collection units from the Pteridophytes section within the LS Algae, Fungi and Plants division (Life Sciences), covering an estimated 411,484 individual items held across 377,277 curatorial/storage units. Material is predominantly whole or partial organism (21 of 22 collection units) and two-dimensional nonprojectable graphic (1 of 22 collection units). Geographic coverage is centred on World terrestrial/freshwater and World marine and terrestrial/freshwater. Preservation is mainly dried and pressed, liquid, and dried. Named taxa represented in this product include Tracheophyta, Cyatheales, Equisetales, Gleicheniales, and Hymenophyllales, among others.

Value

Curatorial assessment rates this product highly on Usage, Identification, and Strategy/mission/research (avg. 4.0/5 across its top three scored dimensions), indicating it is well positioned for external licensing relative to other NHM holdings. Its breadth and depth of coverage make it suitable as a comprehensive reference dataset rather than a niche sample. This material already shows above-average usage/demand signals internally, suggesting a receptive external market.

Use Cases

1. training data for plant-identification and precision-agriculture computer-vision models
2. herbarium specimen imagery for botanical illustration, publishing, and horticultural media
3. reference datasets for taxonomic and phylogenetic research, and for tracking historical distribution/phenology
4. content for gardening, conservation, and citizen-science apps
5. products aimed at an audience with demonstrated existing demand for this material
6. supervised computer-vision or species-identification model training, thanks to reliable taxonomic ground truth