Adoption of Photographed Botanical Plates as an educational alternative to Physical Herbarium Specimens.

Abstract

Some teaching and research institutions do not have environments and technologies that allow students to have direct contact with plants. Therefore, seeking to alleviate these difficulties, it was proposed the construction of botanical plaques of plant organs to be inserted into a virtual environment, making it possible to reach a greater number of people. To this end, organs of the species Clitoria fairchildiana Howard were collected. These organs were placed on a black fabric, which served as a backdrop for capturing the images. The images were edited using the GoDaddy Studio application (Aman Bhutani), removing the background and adding a scale ruler to measure the length of the organs. With botanical plaques in a virtual environment, access to information can be expanded online, with potential for use in research, teaching and extension, by everyone. It is concluded that the material produced is of excellent quality, providing more details of the species' organs than exsiccate. Its use contributes and can facilitate the teaching-learning process. It is useful for educational institutions, research and activities related to the comparison and identification of plants and can also be used in extension activities.