Collaborative Research: CSBR: Natural History Collections: Magnolia grandiFLORA, digitally linking herbaria to support botanical research and education in Mississippi.

为纪念密西西比的官方树和花而命名的Magnolia granflora项目，将为来自密西西比州立大学、密西西比大学、三角洲州立大学、南密西西比大学、墨西哥湾沿岸研究实验室、密西西比自然科学博物馆和植物探索研究所的植物标本室的25万多个维管植物标本开发图像、标签和地理位置参考数据的数字数据库。密西西比州立大学的高性能计算合作实验室将建立一个允许集成数据库搜索的网络界面。标本成像和标签数字化将为基于植物的大规模研究提供全球范围内的收集、生物和地理元数据，并在发生自然或其他灾害时永久备份标本数据。由此产生的高质量数据集将为密西西比州的政府机构、研究人员和公众提供植物识别和植物分布信息的工具。这些数据可以用于追踪稀有和入侵物种，制定环境政策，增加公民对密西西比州自然历史的了解，并通过互动工具加强K-12科学教育。这些数据将有助于开发密西西比州植物的综合清单，并有助于全国范围内对植物多样性进行编目和绘制。许多本科生和研究生将参与该项目。

The Magnolia grandiFLORA project, named in honor of the official state tree and flower of Mississippi, will develop digital databases of images, labels, and georeferenced locality data for more than 250,000 vascular plant specimens from herbaria at Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi, Delta State University, University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, and Institute for Botanical Exploration. A web interface that allows for integrated database searches will be established through the High Performance Computing Collaboratory at Mississippi State University. Specimen imaging and label digitization will provide worldwide access to the collections, biological and geographical metadata for broad-scale studies based on plants, and a permanent back-up of specimen data in the event of natural or other disasters. The resulting high quality data set will provide tools for plant identification and information on plant distributions in Mississippi to government agencies, researchers, and the general public. These data have applications in tracking rare and invasive species, developing environmental policy, increasing citizen knowledge of the natural history of Mississippi, and enhancing K-12 science education with interactive tools. The data will contribute to the development of a comprehensive list of plants in Mississippi and national efforts to catalog and map plant diversity. Numerous undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in the project.