Geographical-Historical Analysis of the Herbarium Specimens Representing the Economically Important Family Amaranthaceae (Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae Clade) Collected in 1821-2022 and Preserved in the Herbarium of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow

The digitization of herbarium collections is an important process that allows access to sometimes huge amounts of data that can be used in various natural sciences. In recent years, the collections of one of the thirty oldest herbariums in the world-the herbarium of the Jagiellonian University-have been digitized. This paper presents the resources of the economically very important Amaranthaceae family, which include 8801 herbarium sheets. They were analyzed in taxonomic, geographical, historical, and functional terms. Herbaria constitute a form of documentation, store and secure comparative material, as well as constitute an extra original gene bank. They are an invaluable database among others for the biological, ethnobotanical and agricultural sciences. The digitization of herbarium collections significantly facilitates access to archival materials; however, searching them is still time-consuming. Therefore, our work aims to analyze the herbarium collection of 8801 sheets for specimens representing the economically important family Amaranthaceae (Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae clade) deposited the oldest herbarium in Poland, the herbarium of the Jagiellonian University (KRA). These specimens have been collected from almost all the continents in dozens of countries for over 200 years. The analyses conducted, including the taxonomic coverage, geographical characteristics and origin, temporal coverage and utility importance of representative species, present the discussed resources in a more accessible way and may become a more attractive form for scientists potentially interested in more advanced research work.