X-ray fluorescence ionomics of herbarium collections

Global herbaria are the greatest repositories of information on the plant kingdom. Discoveries of trace element hyperaccumulator\ua0plants have historically required time-consuming\ua0destructive chemical analysis of fragments from herbarium specimens, which severely constrains the collection of large datasets. Recent advances in handheld X-Ray Fluorescence\ua0spectroscopy (XRF) systems have enabled non-destructive analysis of plant samples and here we propose a new method, which we term "Herbarium XRF\ua0Ionomics", to extract elemental data from herbarium specimens. We present two case studies from major\ua0tropical herbaria where\ua0Herbarium XRF Ionomics has led to the discovery of new hyperaccumulator plants and\ua0provided valuable insights into phylogenetic patterns of trace element hyperaccumulation. Herbarium\ua0XRF Ionomics is a new value proposition for continued funding and retention of herbarium specimens globally