A successful collaboration continues between the Sapienza Herbarium Museum and volunteer Giovanni Buccomino, who is engaged in an important project to rearrange and enhance the Montelucci collection.
Started in 2023, his work focuses on the unsorted material stored as an appendix to the main collection. This consists of various cubbies containing plant samples, only some of which have been identified, sometimes still preserved in their original journals with the collection locations and various handwritten notes by Giuliano Montelucci, together with specimens already mounted on herbarium sheets.
During his work, Giovanni has examined 24 herbarium cubbies, identifying and restoring specimens in good condition and complete with essential information such as locality, date, and collector. With great care and expertise, he has restored the specimens when needed, identified those lacking a scientific name, and mounted the unprepared ones according to museum standards.
His contribution is of great importance: thanks to his meticulous work, the recovered material can now be integrated into the Montelucci Herbarium, catalogued, digitized, and finally inserted into the organized collection, which is already part of a large-scale digitization project of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC).
This commitment combines passion, scientific rigor, and dedication to the Herbarium Museum’s heritage, helping to make an invaluable part of Italy’s natural history increasingly accessible and appreciated.
