The Smithsonian Institution, or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Founded on August 10, 1846, it operates as a trust instrumentality and is not formally a part of any of the three branches of the federal government. The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the United States National Museum, but that name ceased to exist administratively in 1967.
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a 250-acre (100 ha) site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a greenhouse containing several habitats; and the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, which contains one of the world's largest collections of botany-related texts. As of 2016, over a million people visit the New York Botanical Garden annually.
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
Edward Palmer was a self-taught British botanist and an Early-American archaeologist.
The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) is a botanical garden on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., near the James A. Garfield Monument.
The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a 15-acre (6.1 ha) botanical garden located at 900 South Palm Avenue in Sarasota, Florida. The Gardens are located on the grounds of the former home of Marie and William Selby. The Gardens acquired the Historic Spanish Point campus on May 1, 2020.
Haianari Creek is a west bank tributary of the Demerara River in Upper Demerara-Berbice, Guyana. It enters the Demerara River 90 miles upstream of the Demerara's mouth.
Murrays Fall is a waterfall on the Essequibo River, Guyana, approximately 55 km south of the confluence with the Rupununi River.
John Bernhard Leiberg was a Swedish-American botanical explorer, forester, and bryologist. He was a self-taught naturalist who worked in the northwestern United States.
The United States National Herbarium is a collection of five million preserved plant specimens housed in the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It represents about 8% of the plant collection resources of the United States and is one of the ten largest herbaria in the world.
The Smithsonian Gardens, a division of the Smithsonian Institution, is responsible for the "landscapes, interiorscapes, and horticulture-related collections and exhibits", which serve as an outdoor extension of the Smithsonian's museums and learning spaces in Washington, D.C. Established in 1972 as a groundskeeping and horticulture program, Smithsonian Gardens currently manages 180 acres of gardens on the National Mall, 64,000 square feet of greenhouse production space, and the Archives of American Gardens, a research collection of over 60,000 photographs and archival records covering American landscape history from the 1870s to the present.
The Department of Entomology is a research department and collection unit of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), located in Washington, D.C. The department houses the U.S. National Insect Collection, one of the largest entomological collections in the world, with over 35 million specimens housed in 132,354 drawers, 33,000 jars or vials, and 23,000 slides in more than 5,200 cabinets. The department also includes research scientists and technical staff from the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Department of Agriculture Systematic Entomology Lab (SEL) and United States Department of Defense Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WRBU).
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library is located at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in the Bronx, New York City. Founded in 1899 and renamed in the 1990s for LuEsther Mertz, it is the United States' largest botanical research library, and the first library whose collection focused exclusively on botany.
A scientific collection is a collection of items that are preserved, catalogued, and managed for the purpose of scientific study.
Charlotte Cortlandt Ellis was an American amateur plant collector active in New Mexico. She discovered several plant taxa and collected some 500 plant specimens.
Vicki Ann Funk was an American botanist and curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, known for her work on members of the composite family (Asteraceae) including collecting plants in many parts of the world, as well as her synthetic work on phylogenetics and biogeography.
Alice R. Tangerini is an American botanical illustrator. In 1972, Tangerini was hired as a staff illustrator for the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History by American botanist Lyman Bradford Smith. Prior to working at the Smithsonian Institution, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University. As of March 9, 2017, Tangerini remains the only botanical illustrator ever hired by the Smithsonian.
Frank Tweedy (1854–1937) was an American topographer and botanist. He worked on pioneering surveys first in the Adirondacks, and then in the American West. He also made major contributions to our knowledge of the western flora and vegetation. He is perhaps best known for his studies in Yellowstone National Park.
Brian Morey Boom is an American botanist who specializes in the flora of the Guianas and the Caribbean, the family Rubiaceae, ethnobotany, and economic botany.
John James Pipoly III is an American botanist and plant collector. He is a leading expert on the systematics and taxonomy of the genus Ardisia within the Myrsinoideae, as well as the family Clusiaceae.
