X-Ray Fluorescence Ionomics of Herbarium Collections

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