Specimen-based analysis of morphology and the environment in ecologically dominant grasses: the power of the herbarium.

Herbaria contain a cumulative sample of the world's flora, assembled by thousands of people over centuries. To capitalize on this resource, we conducted a specimen-based analysis of a major clade in the grass tribe Andropogoneae, including the dominant species of the world's grasslands in the genera , , and several others. We imaged 186 of the 250 named species of the clade, georeferenced the specimens and extracted climatic variables for each.