Talk:Forest Herbarium (BKF)

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Page scope

Forest Herbarium (BKF) is about the herbarium as a holder of Cannabis material and as the home of the Flora of Thailand. The sheets themselves have their own accession pages, and the article lists them.

Sourcing

Almost everything here comes from the herbarium's own website, specimen database and journal, with Index Herbariorum for comparison. Discuss attribution, independent sourcing and any claim that has lost its attribution here.

Discussion

Source discrepancies

Each divergence is reported as the source gives it.

Founding year

Index Herbariorum and GBIF's GRSciColl entry: 1905, with no explanation.
The herbarium's Thai timeline: the Royal Forest Department's plant collecting began in B.E. 2449 (1906) under H. B. G. Garrett; Phraya Winit Wanandon was assigned to establish the herbarium formally in B.E. 2473 (1930).
Santisuk's 80th-anniversary editorial: founded in 1930.
The director's 2018 slides: "1930 – present [88 years]". The Thai timeline marks the 95th anniversary in B.E. 2568 (2025).

The move to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation

The herbarium's Thai timeline: B.E. 2546 (2003).
The English Flora of Thailand page: the department was inaugurated in 2002. The Thai Forest Bulletin page: the journal passed to the department in 2002.

Number of specimens

The English Forest Botany Division page: "about 300,000 preserved specimens (August, 2018)".
The Thai herbarium page (undated, footer 2026): more than 230,000 dried specimens.
The director's 2018 slides: "ca 220,000". The 2006 collectors page: "around mounted 200,000 mounted specimens".
Index Herbariorum: 280,000. GBIF's GRSciColl entries: 200,000 for the institution and 280,000 for the collection.

Date of the 80th-anniversary editorial

ThaiJo files it in issue No. 38 (2010); its "How to Cite" line gives 2014.

Garrett's 1933 sheets

The database: "Thailand, Chiang Rai, Doi Lung Ka, Mae Soi."
The accessions for the two sheets place Doi Lung Ka and Mae Soi in Lampang province.

Collectors' names

The database gives "Suvannasuddhi, S." for the five 1940 sheets. The 2006 collectors page names "Khid Suvarnasuddhi", who collected about 1,000 numbers in northern Thailand from 1936 to 1942. No source says they are the same person.
Several database collectors share surnames and initials with members of the collecting group Tem Smitinand organised from 1947 to 1977, with spellings that differ: Nuphakdi and Nuphakdee, Suvarnakoses and Suvarnakoset, Bunchuai and Bunchai.

Pages of the 1981 treatment

The e-Flora gives pages 392–394 for the family, 393–394 for the genus and 392 for the species. Éloise 23:49, 4 October 2026 (+07)

Title, names and the sheets

Title. "Forest Herbarium" is a generic name, so the title adds the Index Herbariorum code, as for other herbaria with generic names. "Forest Herbarium (BKF)" is also the value the accessions carry.
Thai names. หอพรรณไม้ is the herbarium's name in the timeline entries for B.E. 2555 and 2568. Since 2 July 2026 (B.E. 2569) the unit's administrative name has been ส่วนพฤกษศาสตร์ป่าไม้, the Forest Botany Division.
The Flora's wording. "Hill-Tribes" is quoted as the Flora writes it, not adopted. The Flora's uses line ends "leaves from female plant as euphoric drug for smoking (hashish)". "Hashish" is not repeated, since hashish is a resin preparation and the Flora is describing leaves.
The 25 sheets. The specimen database holds 25 sheets of the genus; the e-Flora lists 24 Cannabis sativa specimens. One, barcode 009250 (Shimizu T-11518, 1967), is filed as Cannabis sp. and is the one sheet missing from the e-Flora's list of Cannabis sativa specimens. No sheet is type material.
GBIF. The department's GBIF publisher record, created in 2011, lists no published datasets. Éloise 23:49, 4 October 2026 (+07)