Fumariaceae

The fumewort family in Belgium:
In this project we will document the Fumariaceae. These are small herbaceous plants with alternate leaves. They have quite distinctive flowers with two pairs of dissimilar petals, petaloid sepals and a nectar containing spur. They have traditionally been used in herbal medicine, particularly to cure eye problems, but they can be poisonous and contain alkaloids.

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, Fumariaceae, Herbae, Hortus Botanicus Meise, Botanica.