Tropical Plant Collecting provides field biologists with information about carrying out fieldwork in tropical America, gathering botanical collection, managing specimens in herbaria, making information about plants available on the Internet, and raising money to fund both expeditions and the preparation of Floras and monographs. The book is based on over 40 years of tropical plant collecting in Central and South America by the senior editor and his colleagues. Although traditional field and herbarium techniques are discussed, the book emphasizes how new techniques provided by digital photography, databases, and the Internet have revolutionized plant collecting and data presentation in systematic botany. The audience for this book is tropical biologists and students who, as part of their research, need to gather botanical specimens to document their scientific studies. The book is also useful for those taking neotropical field biology courses, and Chapter 3, which covers many of the dangers of traveling and working in neotropical forests, is recommended for anyone planning to visit remote areas of this region.
