Major herbaria, universities, agriculture and forestry research institutes worldwide preserve millions of sheet specimens, seed specimens and fossil specimens. Traditional physical specimens come with multiple inherent drawbacks:

　　● Irreparable deterioration: Paper-based specimens are vulnerable to dampness, insect infestation, fading and physical damage. Frequent handling causes irreversible harm to collections. Rare type specimens and century-old historic specimens cannot be easily lent out for reference.

　　● Barriers to resource sharing: Specimens are scattered across regions and the globe. Researchers face high costs for on-site access, creating obstacles to cross-regional collaboration.

　　● Heavy storage space requirements: Specimen cabinets and repositories occupy substantial space, with rising annual costs for storage and constant temperature & humidity maintenance.

　　● Low data retrieval efficiency: Paper labels rely on manual sorting, limiting the efficiency of retrieval, statistics and species traceability.

　　Plant specimen digitization forms part of the digital archiving project for biological germplasm resources. It enables long-term preservation of precious historic plant specimens and removes barriers to research resource sharing. It provides fundamental digital support for biodiversity research, standardization of traditional Chinese medicine, ecological conservation and popular science education, representing a key infrastructure development direction for digital transformation in agriculture, forestry, biology and traditional Chinese medicine sectors.