Pressed for Impact: Unleashing the Potential of South African National Parks Plant Records
Nikisha Singh presented at SPNHC 2026 on how SANParks’ four herbaria, holding over 35,000 specimens across nine biomes, are being digitised and opened to the world. A century of plant records, hidden in our national parks Most visitors to South Africa’s...
Saving Orphan Collections: Lessons from the Bews Herbarium
Christina Potgieter Curry presented at SPNHC 2026 on how the Bews Herbarium incorporated five neglected plant collections — and what other institutions can learn from the experience. What happens to collections that lose their home? Across South Africa, natural...
Her name on the label, today: the women building South Africa’s collections
The names on today’s labels are being written by a new generation of women; in digitisation suites, herbarium labs, and the field. When we talk about the women behind South Africa’s natural science collections, it is tempting to look only at the past. But...
Her Name on the Label: Nosiphiwo Goci
Every museum label tells a story. Most visitors read the species name, the collector, the date. They rarely see the names of the people who made the science possible; the hands that sorted, the eyes that separated, the patience that turned chaotic field samples into...
A fish from 65 million years ago, found by a woman in East London
On 21 December 1938, a 31-year-old museum curator saved a fish no one could name. It turned out to be a coelacanth; a fish thought to have vanished some 65 million years ago. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was born in East London on 24 February 1907, and in 1936 she...
Novel praying mantis feeding behaviour reported: They can also snack on snails!
Figure 1. Flag Mantis (Polyspilota aeruginosa) immature feeding on a Brown Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) in captivity. Photos by Paul Janse van Rensburg. Article contributed by Riaan Stals, South African National Collection of Insects The behaviour and biology of...
Her Name on the Label: the women behind South Africa’s natural science collections
This Women’s Month, the Natural Science Collections Facility is asking South Africa to meet the women behind the country’s collections — and to add the next names to the record. Every specimen in South Africa’s natural science collections carries a...
From Manual to Metrics: NSCF’s Open-Access Framework & What It Offers Local, African and Global Scientific Communities
Written by Shanelle Ribeiro and Shaun Pieterse The NSCF has developed several open-source resources, tools, and practices that contribute to improving standards, facilitating collaboration, and building capacity for South Africa’s natural science collections. These...