Ericaceae

The heather family in Belgium:
In this project we will document the Ericaceae, one of the largest families of flowering plants which can be found all over the world. They are often woody plants growing on nutrient poor, acid soils. Some well-known examples are cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), Rhododendron, and heather (Erica).

The Belgian Herbarium:
The Botanic Garden Meise holds the largest herbarium collection of Belgian plant specimens. Each of these herbarium specimens has a label with valuable information such as the plant’s identification, and when, where, and who collected the plant. These specimens can be used in many domains of research, such as conservation, evolution, ecology and systematics. These data help us to better understand the plants of Belgium, their history and that of people who collected them. There are about 200,000 specimens in the Belgian Herbarium of the Botanic Garden Meise and we want to document them all! These data will then be made available online at www.botanicalcollections.be.

Keywords (Latin):
Belgium, Ericaceae, Herbae, Hortus Botanicus Meise, Botanica.