Onagraceae alienae

The willowherb family in Belgium:
The Onagraceae (willowherb family) occur practically everywhere in the world, being only absent from cold and warm deserts. The family is specially species-rich in the temperate zones of North America. In Belgium, approximately one half of the species is indigenous while the other half is exotic. In this project, we will deal with the alien Onagraceae. Among these species, Fuchsia are often planted in gardens, while the originally American evening primroses or suncups (Oenothera) arrived to our regions unintentionally. These are often pioneer plants and that is perhaps why they can easily conquer new environments everywhere in the world; in Europe as well, they occur mainly in ruderal circumstances.

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, Onagraceae, Herbae, Hortus Botanicus Meise, Botanica.