Value to collectors? - Natural Scarcity

Collectors can own some of the world’s most precious and biodiverse plants on-chain while supporting local conservation IRL. This unlocks huge value in the regen-community space for members to come together and choose where the treasury is funding, and what expedition and research to support, as well as potential for models they own to be used across scientific research, gaming, metaverse worlds and VFX.

HERBARIUM 🌿**- Our Flagship Scientific NFT Plant Specimen Collection**

Expedition #1 - La Selva Research Station, Costa Rica

Making scientific 3D scanned plant specimens occupies uncharted territory for research, adding improvements to a plant specimen collection process that has been relatively unchanged for at least six centuries.

To prove this novel method was possible we carried out a 4-week pilot at the world's leading research station for tropical biology, La Selva.

Why La Selva Research station?

La Selva is the flagship Station of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) containing...

• 2,077 species of plants
• 10,000 specimen herbarium

OTS Research Stations are...

• The world’s leading institution in the study of tropical biology
• Involved in 6400+ scientific publication and part of a non-profit consortium of around 50 research institutions.

Read about our adventures in Costa Rica here! 🌎

What did we find?

Each specimen is unique, with its own challenges to 3D modelling. These range from the diversity of sizes causing challenges of depth of field, to colouration and reflections requiring cross-polarisation techniques and careful colour balancing.

In this way, the immense diversity of this region's flora, the reason for visiting this site, adds an extra level of difficulty to the process. Yet that was the joy of this pilot, discovering solutions within this novel research.

Within our problem-solving process we’re also playing with methods of specimen collection, currently utilising 3 methods:

• For certain specimens such as a climbing monstera we've been deploying in-field scanning, which is an extremely exciting method, as you capture both the specimen and its environment.
• Alongside this for other plants I’ve been carefully removing these specimens and potting them for modelling in the studio. This allows for more controlled scanning, whilst being able to return the specimen post-scan.
• Finally, we are also taking some cuttings of certain parts of plants, such as heliconias. Crucially, this method allows us to produce models with associated cuttings that can be stored as 2D pressings, thereby anchoring our models to reality through physical counterparts.

What’s Next?

That’s up to YOU, our community…