Greve, MichelleLykke, Anne MetteFagg, Christopher W.Gereau, Roy E.Lewis, Gwilym P.Marchant, RobMarshall, Andrew R.Ndayishimiye, JoëlBogaert, JanSvenning, Jens-Christian2016-08-042016-07Greve, M, Lykke, AM, Fagg, CW, Gereau, RE, Lewis, GP, Marchant, R, Marshall, AR, Ndayishimiye, J, Bogaert, J & Svenning, J-C 2016, 'Realising the potential of herbarium records for conservation biology', South African Journal of Botany, vol. 105, pp. 317-323.0254-6299 (print)1727-9321 (online)10.1016/j.sajb.2016.03.017http://hdl.handle.net/2263/56194One of the major challenges in ecosystem conservation is obtaining baseline data, particularly for regions that have been poorly inventoried, such as regions of the African continent. Here we use a database of African herbarium records and examples from the literature to show that, although herbarium records have traditionally been collected to build botanical reference “libraries” for taxonomic and inventory purposes, they provide valuable and useful information regarding species, their distribution in time and space, their traits, phenological characteristics, associated species and their physical environment. These data have the potential to provide invaluable information to feed into evidence-based conservation decisions.en© 2016 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in South African Journal of Botany. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in South African Journal of Botany, vol. 105, pp. 317-323, 2016. doi : 10.1016/j.sajb.2016.03.017.Biological collectionsDatabaseHistorical recordsLabel informationLong-term data collectionsTraitPostprint Article