Researchers from the U-M Herbarium presented new research and innovations in collections at Botany 2026, an international conference bringing together botanists, researchers, students, and collections professionals from around the world.
The Herbarium was represented through four presentations, including two talks and two posters. Brad Ruhfel, Collection Manager, Vascular Plants, and Assistant Research Scientist, presented new research on the evolutionary history of riverweeds (Podostemaceae), expanding genomic datasets to reveal new relationships within the family and investigate its highly specialized aquatic growth form.
Brad also co-authored a presentation by Will Weaver, along with Kyle Lough and Stephen Smith, on VoucherVision, a U-M-developed tool that uses large language models to transcribe and structure specimen-label data. Currently, VoucherVision’s publicly accessible software interface is used regularly by more than 40 institutions and has processed over 250,000 specimen records. The presentation highlighted the new VoucherVisionGO-Editor, which uses a “zero-trust” approach requiring human verification of AI-generated data.
Two posters highlighted the Herbarium’s efforts to expand access to botanical knowledge. Ruhfel, along with Abbey Roelofs, Kevin Murray, Jennifer Gregory, and Anton Reznicek, Curator Emeritus, highlighted the Michigan Flora app, a free mobile resource bringing identification keys, species information, distribution maps, and other resources to users in the field.
Ruhfel, along with Aly Baumgartner, Collection Manager, Vascular Plants, and Kyle Lough also submitted a poster on the Herbarium’s contributions to the All Asia Thematic Collections Network, which brought nearly 70,000 Asian specimens into the digital realm and contributed approximately 118,000 specimen records and images to the All Asia Symbiota portal.
Together, the presentations showcased how Herbarium collections continue to support innovation, digitization, and broader access to botanical knowledge.
