Plant collections: Possibilities of using herbaria, digital herbaria and plant databases in botany teaching at Eszterházy Károly University

Abstract

Herbaria have been always used mostly by researchers dealing with systematic botany, taxonomy or flora of a certain area, providing insight into the variety of plant taxa and their distribution. Preserved specimens can also be used for molecular and phylogenetic research. In addition to their scientific mission, herbaria play an important role in botanical education. Besides traditional utilization of herbaria, there are a huge possibilities using virtual plant collections as well. The main target of this article is to highlight more important hungarian and worldwide-used plant online resources suitable for botany teaching to the students as well as wide public at Herbarium of Eszterházy Károly University, Eger (EGR).