The Herbario Nacional Colombiano (COL) del Instituto de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia has the largest collection of Colombian plants in the world and it is one of the largest herbaria in South America with an estimated 600,000 specimens. This collection is in the process of being digitalized, and there are now 344,973 specimens data based and made publicly available at the Institute’s virtual collections website (www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co). The main goal of this project is to database, photograph, georeference and release through the web information of 11,300 orchid specimens deposited in COL. In addition, the metadata of the project will be generated through the National Metadata Catalog of SIB-Colombia in Cassia web application. All the information will be available on the web site of the ICN, as well as through the IABIN network and the Distributed Search Engine of SIB-Colombia, the Colombian focal point for IABIN.

The project will be developed in 6 months and it will cost USD $ 12,605.75 The project requests USD $ 3,960.22USD from IABIN.