The Motherhood Diary

Millions of plant specimens become easier to explore from home

The Motherhood Diary Source: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (opens in a new tab)

Kew's 2025 data-portal launch brought historic plant and fungal collections to a wider audience.

Dated news brief · May 28, 2025

Kew launched a public data portal to make its plant and fungal collections easier to explore online. About five million specimens had been digitised when the announcement appeared, within a wider collection of 7.5 million.

The rich green leaves of a growing plant. Illustrative photograph, not an image of the specific event or discovery reported.
Illustrative photograph, not an image of the specific event or discovery reported. Photo: Moritz Kindler / Unsplash.

Some specimens date back more than 300 years. Visitors could search by details including species, region or collector and examine high-resolution images, opening the archive to people unable to visit in person.

The specimens also preserve evidence. Labels and plant features help researchers compare where organisms grew and how their characteristics varied over time. The portal therefore offers access to research material as well as botanical pictures.

A small research adventure

Choose a familiar plant and follow the portal link in Kew's report. Look for a collection date, place or handwritten label. Leave room for questions; you do not need to identify everything on the sheet.

Read Kew's report.

Illustrative photograph, not an image of the specific event or discovery reported. Photo: Moritz Kindler / Unsplash.

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