Notice: The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz

2007·0.45 MB·

by  Sprunger, Samuel

Selbyana 28(2): 210-211. 2007,
NOTICE
THE SWISS ORCHID FOUNDATION AT THE HERBARIUM JANY RENZ
SAMUEL SPRUNGER
Curator of the Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz Institute of Botany
University of Basel Schoenbeinstr, 6, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland,
Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT: To celebrate the 100th birthday of the famous orchidologist Jany Renz and the seven years of
activity of the Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz, we are pleased to inform the public
about the state of affairs at the Foundation,
When Jany Renz died in 1999 he bequeathed the Botanic Institute at the Basel University, of
his herbarium and his library to the University the Botanic Association Basel, and the historic
of Basel, and in 2001, the Swiss Orchid Foun orchid collection of Bernoulli and Cario avail
dation at the Herbarium Jany Renz was founded, able, With the approximately 5000 hand-colored
The aims of the Foundation are to maintain and drawings from Renz' library still to be digita
curate the legacy of Jany Renz and to make his lized and other graphic materials that are pro
collection available to a worldwide audience, vided by authors from all over the world, the
After the registration and digitalization of all Swiss Orchid Foundation hopes to present as
herbarium specimens, books and separates, the complete a version as possible of the World Or
approximately 20,000 herbarium specimens of chid Iconography.
the Renz collection are online at www,orchid,
In order to catalog new records including easy
unibas,ch,
georeferencing, researchers designed a stable
For systematic-taxonomic research, herbari
and flexible system based on the internet pro
ums are important sources for revisions, mono
gramming language PHP and the database
graphs, and lately DNA to perform phylogenetic
MySQL® in 2005, The World Orchid Iconogra
analyses, Herbarium specimens are often the last
phy is maintained and continuously updated by
evidence of long destroyed vegetation, Further
civilian workers under the direction of Dr, h.c,
more, the herbarium specimens of Jany Renz are
Samuel Sprunger,
of excellent aesthetics and quality, Over a hun
Currently the website of the Swiss Orchid
dred of them are type specimens of his new clas
Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz contains
sifications, The section of the website on modem
about 36,000 pictures with updated nomencla
reference literature is complete and therefore a
ture from all over the world. All orchids from
very valuable base for orchid research. The sep
arates-collection, consisting of roughly 5000 sci Europe, Asia Minor, and Northern Africa are
entific articles about orchids, comes from differ virtually available either as herbarium speci
ent sources and represents an outstanding rich mens, hand-colored drawings, or photographs.
and complete collection of orchid literature, This picture library is an important instrument
Both collections are integrated in the index of for scientists, non-professionals, enthusiasts, and
the Basel University Library http://aleph. cultivators worldwide in order to get access to
unibas,ch, visual and nomenclatural information on or
After having inventoried the Jany Renz's sci chids.
entific cultural heritage, the Foundation decided Furthermore, all visitors to the website of the
to make the whole collection virtually available Foundation have free access to the BibJi
worldwide. Along with informative articles Orchidea, a comprehensive database with
about the Foundation and Dr. Jany Renz, the 140,000 records and thus 80% of the worldwide
website of the Foundation offers access to the available orchid literature, This database is
26,000 herbarium specimens from all over the maintained and continuously updated by the or
world. It also makes the collections of Renz, of chidologist Dr. Rudolph Jenny, The publishing
210
SPRUNGER: HERBARIUM JANY RENZ 211
FIGURE 1. Herbarium sheet number 4192 of Encyclia tampensis Small at the Herbarium Jany Renz.
scientist, as well as the interested hobby-orchi tions using a taxon-declaration. The results of
dologist, will find publications not only by title, the search are additionally documented with pic
author and publishing year, but also by a differ tures from the database of the Swiss Orchid
entiated subject catalogue and first determina- Foundation.