Historic Indonesian plant collection rediscovered in Basel

• Four plant collections belonging to naturalists Fritz and Paul Sarasin, previously thought destroyed in WWII, were discovered in Basel.
• The pocket herbaria contain 28 dried reference plants, known as type specimens.
• The specimens originated from an expedition to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi by the Sarasin cousins.
• Scientists believed these specific collections were incinerated during the 1943 bombing of the Berlin herbarium.
• A total of over 140 types were identified during the digitization project, including ferns and orchids.

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