We reached a milestone on the Exploring project this week – completion of metadata entry (to include scientific names, families, additional captions, and geographical locations) for the 2,273 mounted botanical photographs from the Department of Botany records. Now ends the days of straining my eyes and talking out loud to myself in order to sound out cursive captions of scientific names. The four separate tabs of my open web browser that allowed me to access multiple plant, fungal, and algae databases to verify genus, species, and family, are now closed. Never again will I have to type so many words with so many vowels in them (Teoschistaceae, Pannariaceae, Peltigeraceae, Collemataceae, Physiaceae, Lecanoraceae, Cladoniaceae, Bacidiaceae, etc.). Then again, never say never.

We will continue to feature images from this collection on the Exploring blog, and by the time the project concludes, the entire collection of 2,273 images will be accessible via UMedia.

For now, enjoy the 2,273rd image:

– Geoglossum hirsutum (fungi), July 1903, Echo Lake