Talk:Forbes 53 (1924)

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Discussion for: Forbes 53 (1924) • View • Links • Related changes

Use this page for verification notes, disputes, and action items. Keep narrative content on the article.

Page scope

Forbes 53 (1924) is about a single collection of cannabis, a seed lot or a herbarium specimen: where and when it was gathered, by whom, and what the sources say about the plants.

Data verification

Check the main page for documentation tier status. Discuss coordinate accuracy, photo quality, or collection details here.

Discussion

Evidentiary scope

The database gives the collector H. M. L. Forbes, the number 53, the date February 1924 (day blank) and the locality Berea. Durban. Its only plant description is Flowers greenish-yellow. It records no habitat, use or note on cultivation, and the label has not been read, so nothing shows whether the plant was cultivated, grew wild or had escaped. The accession is classified Unknown until the label can be read. No conservation priority is assigned.

The Botanical Database of Southern Africa publishes no image of this sheet. Its image count is zero, and so is the image count of all 1,361,966 rows in the database: the store is empty, and SANBI's own site still lists plant images among its plans. The accession carries no image until the herbarium supplies a scan.

Georeferencing

The point -29.875, 31.125 is the one the herbarium database, BODATSA, publishes for this sheet. It is the centre of the quarter-degree square 2931CC, about 27 km across, and not the place the plant was gathered: BODATSA gives its accuracy, 1/4dg, and stores the square's code beside it. Of the 61 georeferenced Cannabis rows in BODATSA, all 41 flagged 1/4dg fall exactly on a square's centre and none of the other 20 does. BODATSA's LatLongChecked field is null on every Cannabis row, so no Cannabis coordinate in BODATSA has been verified by the herbarium. Berea, the Durban suburb the label names (OpenStreetMap node 262695101), lies inside the square, 12.2 km west of the point. The point is carried at the precision the database gives it. Basis: holder's georeference. Uncertainty: about 19 km.

Editorial treatment

The KwaZulu-Natal Herbarium publishes no per-specimen page. Five permalink shapes were tried for a sheet and all answered 404, so the accession cites the database itself and the barcode identifies the sheet.

A second Forbes gathering of 1921, at the Compton Herbarium (NBG), carries the Zulu name Insangu in its locality field and is a separate accession. The catalogues give no initials for that one and Forbes, H. for it against Forbes, H.M.L. here, so whether the two are one collector is not settled.

Source citations remain in the article. Éloise 07:19, 24 September 2026 (+07)