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Short Abstract

The University of Coimbra Herbarium holds 500k+ plant specimens. A study of 19th-century collections highlights overlooked contributors, including women, whose work in species discovery and documentation shaped botanical knowledge and now informs biodiversity conservation.

Abstract

The University of Coimbra Herbarium (COI) safeguards over 100,000 Portuguese flora specimens and over 200,000 specimens from former African colonies. A critical examination of the contexts in which this biological material was collected and accumulated has led to the recognition of a larger diversity of plant collectors. Alongside the over-representation of Western men with formal education, women's participation in these processes of knowledge production is evident, as are the contributions of other individuals who are often unacknowledged, such as amateur plant collectors and gardeners in Portugal, or local and indigenous assistants who contributed their work and/or knowledge (ethnobotanical, medicinal, etc.) in the former colonies.

Focusing on the long nineteenth century, our aim was to highlight female collectors and botanists whose specimens are catalogued in COI. We attempted to uncover their biographies and report on their periods of activity. Our aim was to analyse their collection strategies and contributions to identifying new species, documenting their distribution and advancing knowledge of plant diversity. The data provided by female collectors and botanists such as Sophia Rosa da Silva, one of the first Portuguese female doctors (active between 1876 and 1890), or Maria da Conceição Ochôa, wife of the first republican mayor of Alfândega da Fé, who collected 70 plants between April and July 1890, is now crucial for defining conservation priorities in this biodiversity crisis. At the same time, acknowledging the participation of these women complicates narratives and adds actors to the history of botanical knowledge production in the nineteenth century.