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Singapore Botanic Gardens

Singapore Herbarium Digitalisation Project

Your support will help us achieve completion of digitalisation by 2027

Last updated 20 April 2026

Our Digitalisation Journey

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Singapore Herbarium in 2025, we embarked on the process to digitalise the institution's extensive collections, extending online access to these precious specimens throughout the world.

When completed, this initiative will establish the Herbarium as one of the most comprehensive online databases of botanical specimens in Southeast Asia.

Pressed Herbarium voucher specimen collection

Pressed Herbarium voucher specimen collection

'Byte-size' plants: Singapore Herbarium goes online

Join The Straits Times' photojournalist Shintaro Tay as he tries his hand at digitalising the specimens.

An exciting multimedia perspective of the Singapore Herbarium's digitalisation from The Straits Times

Click to enjoy
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Why is digitalisation important?

Provides international access to high-quality images of our botanical collections gathered across Southeast Asia for two centuries.

Facilitates data comparison that is important to scientific objectives such as accurate plant identification and name checks.

Digitalised information (including localities, phenology etc.) supports critical research including climate change, wild crop relatives, food security and ecology.

“We cannot live without plants: They are food, medicine — almost everything we use comes from plants in one way or another. Even the steak we eat comes from plants. No grass, no cow; no cow, no steak.”
— Dr Jana LEONG-ŠKORNIČKOVÁ, Keeper of Singapore Herbarium
Image of a Herbarium voucher (Photo credit: Felicia Tay)

Image of a Herbarium voucher

Aims for this project

1. Enhanced research and data management capabilities:

  • Detailed metadata supports research in biodiversity conservation, species discovery, species distribution, phenology (flowering and fruiting patterns), plant adaptation to climate change, and crop wild relatives for food security.

  • Digital records allow better storage, organisation, and retrieval of pictorial and textual plant data.

  • Enhanced data analytics of AI pattern recognition improves and automates species identification and taxonomic classification

2. Global research equity and accessibility:

  • A digitalised herbarium is easily accessible to researchers, students and even the general public.

  • High-resolution digital images and detailed metadata allow researchers to examine specimens more effectively.

  • Globally democratises access to valuable botanical resources.

3. Protection of valuable botanical information:

  • Safeguards valuable botanical data by providing a digital backup of the information.

Support the Herbarium Digitalisation Project!

Donate here

Exhibition: Pressed in Pixels - Digitalising the Singapore Herbarium

Curious to know more? Come visit the Singapore Herbarium and observe the digitalisation process through the viewing panel. Enjoy the variety of collections on display as well as participate in family-friendly activities with your loved ones!

More information about the Pressed in Pixels Exhibition here

Children playing with plant-inspired kaleidoscopes at the exhibition