Good record keeping and plant labelling are important in the scientific function of botanic gardens. By accurately mapping and recording plant data the collection can be used by researchers and the public to increase their plant knowledge. Record keeping does not need to be complex, but there are certain minimum requirements that should be met, especially for Specialist and Thematic collections.
Record keeping should be based around an “Accession Number” that can be used to track a particular plant or group of plants accurately and easily. Each individually sourced and planted taxa will have its own accession number. For example, a single Wollemi pine may have its own accession number. A group of 15 wild collected Chrysocephalum appiculatum collected from the same source and planted on the same day may share a single accession number as each plant in that group shares a single set of scientific data. An additional 15 Chrysocephalum appiculatum collected from a different location, but planted on the same day would have a different accession number. Short term plantings such as bedding displays or meadows are not usually accessioned.
For a large, inner city botanic gardens (Tier 4) all new plants going into the landscape would be accessioned. For some of the larger gardens, such as Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, this has been happening for many decades, meaning virtually all plants in the gardens are accessioned. For smaller gardens, especially those in Tier 1 and 2, only the Specialist and Thematic collections may be accessioned, although they may choose to keep records on their Display Collections and General Living Collection as well. Collections record keeping can be time consuming and requires a level of knowledge and training. Records are best kept electronically, and while an excel spreadsheet may be sufficient, plant records databases such as Hortis or IrisBG are the gold standard.
As a general rule, the more records that can be kept, the greater the value of the collection, but as for all collections if a garden can only keep records on one or two particular collections, and do it well, this is still of real value. Regularly uploading collections records to international databases such as PlantSearch increases the value of the collections for researchers across the globe.