Ever hopeful that we might get a walk in despite the forecast for continuous rain, we met at Beacon Hill and the tea drinkers had their tea in the shelter of one of the several lapas there. Once it was clear that the dense mist and steady rain were not going to let up, we decided to spend some time in the herbarium. After several years of dedicated effort, we have at last completed the process of capturing the data from all the angiosperm and gymnosperm herbarium specimens, with linked images, into the BRAHMS database. The rainy morning provided the ideal opportunity for a training session on how to use this newly-installed database on the herbarium computer.
Gail and Dorothy had little trouble opening the database. We then explored how to find a particular species among the data and view the image of the actual voucher linked to the record in the database. Once we had identified a particular specimen, the next step was to find it in the cupboards - also done successfully.
This training session led to requests for the software and database to be loaded onto group members' home computers for personal use.
The time in the herbarium was also utilised to identify plant material gathered on an outing that some of the group had made to Pondoland earlier in the week.
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| The rainy conditions at Beacon Hill |
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| Working with the database and finding specimens |
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