NZVH Restricted Help Page

Introduction
The New Zealand Virtual Herbarium (NZVH) website enables a single query to access specimen records from 11 participating members of the New Zealand National Herbarium Network. The data are retrieved and displayed as they are provided from each herbarium, including data errors and difference in data entry standards. Data are continually tested and improved at the herbaria, and are regularly updated in NZVH. It is important to note that the data represent the state of specimens in herbaria, some or many of which may not yet have been updated; furthermore, the herbaria do not all identify their collections according the same botanical treatments. Thus the patterns of the NZVH are indicative rather than absolute.

The information on this page is intended to assist users in understanding the limitations of NZVH data and to achieve the best query results.

Herbarium abbreviations
Throughout the help page, the following codes are used to refer to the participating herbaria:
 * AK - Auckland War Memorial Museum
 * CANU - Canterbury University Herbarium
 * CHR - Allan Herbarium Herbarium
 * LINC - Lincoln University Herbarium
 * MPN - Dame Ella Campbell Herbarium
 * NZFRI - National Forestry Herbarium
 * OTA - University of Otago Herbarium
 * PDD - New Zealand Fungal Herbarium
 * Unitec - Herbarium, Unitech
 * WAIK - Waikato University Herbarium
 * WELT - Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa Tongarewa

General
Search terms are case insensitive. 'Raoulia' and 'raoulia' will return the same records.

The wildcard is '%'. 'alb%' will return 'alba', 'albosericea', 'albida', 'albovirens', 'albicans' etc. The wildcard can be placed either side of the search term, or both, to make the desired pattern. However, a wild card at the start of the query value will significantly slow slow down a search.

Navigating the query form
The query form works best with Javascript enabled, but will also work without. The following assumes that Javascript is enabled.

The restricted access query form contains two expandable sections in which search criteria can be selected, one for taxon names and one for additional search criteria. Typing a genus name in the taxon name query or selecting a search criterion from the list in the extended query will bring up a plus-sign button. Clicking on the button or hitting  when it is in focus will add a new row. Up to five taxon names can be entered. The number of extended search criteria that can be entered is limited by the number of options in the drop-down list.

The query form can be navigated using the mouse, entirely with the keyboard, or a combination of the two. In order to navigate within the list boxes using your keyboard in Internet Explorer, you need to press  (or ) first. The list will then open as if you clicked on it with the mouse and you can navigate through the list using the up and down arrows or by starting to type the query term. In Firefox you can navigate with the up and down arrows or by typing, but you only get to see one line at a time. Pressing  first will open the list so you can see all options at the same time. In Google Chrome, Safari and Opera you can navigate the lists as in Firefox, but you can not open the list with the keyboard.

Taxon name
You can query using scientific names by entering query values into one or all of the genus, species and infraspecific name fields for a single query row. Queries of up to five taxon names at a time are possible by adding additional rows.

It is important to note that different herbaria may not follow the same system of classification, so you may need to query on a synonym in order to retrieve matches from all herbaria.

The following resources provide authoritative information on plant names and synonomy:
 * New Zealand Plant Names Database
 * New Zealand Fungi
 * New Zealand Organisms Register (Currently under development)
 * International Plant Name Index (IPNI)
 * Australian Plant Name Index (APNI)
 * Index Fungorum
 * Algaebase
 * Australian Marine Algal Name Index (AMANI)

Qualifiers
If there is doubt about the identification of a plant, the record might contain one of the following qualifiers:
 * aff. = akin to or bordering
 * cf. = compare with
 * forsan = perhaps
 * near = close to
 * ? = uncertain
 * incorrect = incorrect (this is used where the name applied to the specimen is known to be incorrect, but a new, positive identification has not yet been made)

To include uncertain identification select 'yes' from the drop down menu under Include Uncertain Identifications.

Batch file search
The batch file search allows users to query for more taxa than the search limit provided by the form.

Files can contain genus, species, infraspecific_rank and infraspecific_epithet data in either comma-delimited or space-delimited format. Column headers are not required. The file can also include comments, as long they are prefixed by a '#' character on each line. Comma and space delimiters cannot be used together in the same file. Note that the infraspecific rank must be one of the following values, and must include a full stop.
 * subsp.
 * var.
 * subvar.
 * f.
 * subf.

For example:

genus1

genus2, species2

genus3, species3, infraspecific_rank, infraspecific_epithet

OR

genus1

genus2 species2

genus3 species3 infraspecific_rank infraspecific_epithet

Determined by
The name of the person who provided the currently identification for a specimen. For the most effective search, enter the surname of the determiner with a wildcard (%) either side, e.g. '%walsh%'.

Determination information is currently provided by CHR, WELT.

Determination date
Currently not working.

Geography
The location component of the query can be specified in a number of ways. Varying degrees of confidence and uncertainty are associated with the locality fields. Some fields have been filled in in error by the collector; other fields have been completed by others after the event; others have been automatically generated; others are the result of historical interpretation, and others have changed through geopolitical adjustments.

Country
Country can either be selected from the drop-down menu or typed in the country query box. Note that many herbaria only deliver New Zealand records to the NZVH. Also, changes in geopolitical boundaries mean that the country recorded as the collecting location for some older specimens may not correspond to the country that the locality is mapped in today.

State
The province can be typed in the 'state' query box or, if you have already selected a country, it can be chosen from the drop-down menu. Note there is considerable variation in the geographic schema used by herbaria in New Zealand

Herbarium region
This field allows you to query by a ecological region or district.

This field is being provided by:

Near named place
The near named place to the locality of the collection, generally based on Geoscience Australia’s 1:100 000 topographic maps.

Near Named Place is currently provided by AD, BRI, CANB, DNA, HO and PERTH.

Locality text
You can query for terms that occur within the textual locality information associated with herbarium specimens. To query this field most effectively, enter a search term with a wildcard (%) either side, e.g. '%simpson desert%'.

Bounding box query
The range query allows you to query for records within a bounding box defined by a range of latitude and longitude. When entering decimal coordinates, use negative values for southern latitudes and western longitudes, and ensure that the lower latitude and longitude values are entered first.

Geocode precision
The radius in metres within which the coordinates assigned to a record are estimated to be accurate. For example, a record with a geocode precision of 10,000, will have been collected within a 10 km radius of the geocode assigned to that collection.

Geocode source
An indication of whether the geocode was provided by the collector, assigned by the database compiler, automatically generated from a stated locality, or generated from the nearest named place (generalised arbitrary point).

Geocode source is provided by all herbaria.

Collector
The name of the primary collector. For a more effective search, enter the surname of the collector with a wildcard (%) either side, e.g. '%Cheeseman%'.

Collecting number
This is the sequential number (or other codified number) that is given to the specimen by the primary collector(s). Components of a number that have been interpreted will appear in brackets. If the collection number is not recorded or not known, this field will be populated with 's.n.' (sine numero).

Additional collectors
Additional collectors responsible for the collection of the specimen from the wild. For a more effective search, enter the surname of the collector with a wildcard (%) either side, e.g. '%colenso%'.

Altitude
The altitude, or the altitudinal range, at which a specimen was collected. Note that altitude is usually only recorded where the altitude of the collecting locality was provided by the collector, although some herbaria have attempted to retrofit altitudes to specimens using digital elevation models and spatial information systems. Altitude is recorded for approximately 15 percent of collections, so a lack of records returned when querying this field does not necessarily equate to a lack of records collected at that altitude.

Altitude data is currently provided by ????.

Depth
The water depth at which an algal or aquatic specimen was collected. Note that depth is only recorded where the depth of the collecting site was provided by the collector, so a lack of records returned when querying this field does not necessarily equate to a lack of records collected at that depth.

Depth data is currently provided by ?????.

Cultivated plants
Where specimen records are flagged as 'cultivated' by the source herbarium, they will, by default, be excluded from your query. Check the box if you wish to include cultivated plant records in your query. Make sure you check the 'Cultivated flag' box under 'Display options' to include cultivated status in the results.

Please note that the effectiveness of the exclude/include cultivated plant records function is dependent on whether cultivated plant records are provided, and flagged as cultivated, by each herbarium. Because cultivated plant records are dealt with in a variety of ways by different herbaria, query results may include cultivated plant records even if you chose to exclude them. While the participating herbaria intend to standardise the way that cultivated plant records are delivered to the NZVH, this requires a lot of work and is impractical at present. If accurate cultivated status data is critical for your research, you should clarify any suspect results with individual herbaria.

Collecting date
Querying on collecting date will currently only return records that have a complete collecting date recorded (i.e. day, month and year), regardless of whether you query on a complete date or a partial date.

Specimen located at
You can restrict your results to specimens held at a particular herbarium.

For specimens at the Australian National Herbarium (CANB), you can choose to query the Canberra Botanic Gardens (CBG) collection (which was united with CANB, formerly Herbarium Australiense, in 1993), the main CANB collection, or both.

Accession number
The accession number is the unique identifier of a specimen within a herbarium. If you are looking for a specific collection and you know its accession number you can enter it here. To avoid the possibility of duplicate numbers you should also enter the herbarium in the previous field.

Note the following prefixes and suffixes apply:
 * AD:
 * BRI: All BRI accession numbers are prefixed by 'AQ', which must be included in the query.
 * CANB: Divided mixed collections have been given suffixes 'a', 'b', etc. The recent practice is to append a sequential decimal number.
 * DNA: Accession numbers are prefixed with either 'D' - Darwin or 'A' - Alice Springs. More recent (since 2007) and future accessions will be 'D' numbers.
 * MEL: Accession numbers are succeeded by a letter that distinguishes individual components of a mixed collection (i.e. where more than one taxon or more than one collection appear on the same sheet or in the same packet, and cannot be separated). 'A' is the default suffix for all collections; 'B', 'C' etc. indicate additional components. Enter the appropriate suffix after the accession number (with no space between). If you don't know which component you're after, or if you wish to view all components, use the wildcard character (%).

Record update date
The date that the record was last updated at the host institution.

This data is currently provided by AD, CANB, DNA, HO, MEL, NSW and PERTH.

Map
Mapping specimen records can provide a good overview of species' distributions. Only georeferenced records are shown on maps; to access non-geocoded records, choose another output format.

Click on the map (don't drag it) to reposition it. The spot that you click on will become the new centre of the map.

A number of display options are available. Click on the 'Redraw map' button after changing any display options.

Clicking on 'New query' will take you back to the query page.

HTML table
You can choose to display 10, 25, 50 or 100 records per page. Use the navigation buttons at the right of the table header to move through the results pages. The scroll bar at the bottom of the table allows you to view the fields that don't fit within the table window.

By default, your query results will be ordered by herbarium and accession number. The data can be sorted by clicking on the arrows next to the column. Click on the arrows once to sort the results in ascending order; click twice to sort in descending order. You can sort on up to three columns at once by holding the  key while selecting the second and third columns.

Note that, because some accession numbers include letters, the accession numbers are treated as text and can not be ordered numerically.

Output to data file
You can choose to output your query results as a comma delimited file (CSV), in ABCD format or in HISPID3 format. Files can either be downloaded or sent as a zip file to an email address.