A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
In botany, a virtual herbarium is a herbarium in a digitized form. That is, it concerns a collection of digital images of preserved plants or plant parts. Virtual herbaria often are established to improve availability of specimens to a wider audience. However, there are digital herbaria that are not suitable for internet access because of the high resolution of scans and resulting large file sizes. Additional information about each specimen, such as the location, the collector, and the botanical name are attached to every specimen. Frequently, further details such as related species and growth requirements are mentioned.
The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is a global botanical research institute and learning center located in the Cultural District of Fort Worth, Texas, United States. BRIT moved to its new 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m2) facility adjacent to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden from their original downtown location in spring 2011.
Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting is an ancient practice with records of a Chinese botanist collecting roses over 5000 years ago.
Otto Wilhelm Sonder was a German botanist and pharmacist.
Hugh Cuming was an English collector who was interested in natural history, particularly in conchology and botany. He has been described as the "Prince of Collectors".
Elmer Drew Merrill was an American botanist and taxonomist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through the course of his career he authored nearly 500 publications, described approximately 3,000 new plant species, and amassed over one million herbarium specimens. In addition to his scientific work he was an accomplished administrator, college dean, university professor and editor of scientific journals.
The Harvard University Herbaria and Botanical Museum are institutions located on the grounds of Harvard University at 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Botanical Museum is one of three which comprise the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Oakes Ames was an American biologist specializing in orchids. His estate is now the Borderland State Park in Massachusetts. He was the son of Governor of Massachusetts, Oliver Ames, and grandson of Congressman Oakes Ames.
The Finnish Museum of Natural History, established in 1988, is a research institution under the University of Helsinki in Finland, based in Helsinki, Finland. It is a natural history museum responsible for the national botanical, zoological, geological and paleontological collections, which consist of samples from around the world. The collections serve scientific, public informational and educational purposes.
The Muséum des sciences naturelles d'Angers is a municipal museum in Angers. Dedicated to Natural History, the Muséum d'Angers houses in its collections about 530,000 objects, including 3,000 birds, 20,000 shells, 50,000 fossils, 80,000 insects and 350,000 herbarium samples, as well as hundreds of specimens taxidermised or in liquid, skeletons, minerals, technical instruments and Documents. The Muséum d'Angers receives annually about 20,000 visitors, as well as school groups, interns, researchers and volunteers.
The NTNU University Museum in Trondheim is one of seven Norwegian university museums with natural and cultural history collections and exhibits. The museum has research and administrative responsibility over archaeology and biology in Central Norway. Additionally, the museum operates comprehensive community outreach programs and has exhibits in wooden buildings in Kalvskinnet.
The National Herbarium of Victoria is one of Australia's earliest herbaria and the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. Its 1.5 million specimens of preserved plants, fungi and algae—collectively known as the State Botanical Collection of Victoria—comprise the largest herbarium collection in Australia and Oceania.
The University and Jepson Herbaria are two herbaria that share a joint facility at the University of California, Berkeley holding over 2,200,000 botanical specimens, the largest such collection on the US West Coast. These botanical natural history museums are located on the ground floor of the Valley Life Sciences Building on the main campus of the university in Berkeley, California. There are a number of ancillary collections such as the Marine Algal Collection, Fruit & Cone Collection, Horticultural Herbarium and Spirit Collection. The herbaria hold many type specimens with a particular strength in Western North American and Pacific Rim plants. Holotypes are maintained separately for both herbaria. The Charterhouse School Herbarium is housed separately within the University Herbarium. The Herbaria have an open house every year on Cal Day with a range of activities for children and adults, and the Jepson Herbarium runs a series of workshops and public programs focusing on botanical education and the flora of California throughout the year.
George Chippendale was an Australian botanist and a strong proponent of growing Australian Native plants. As well as a career in botany, he also taught his love of botany to all who would listen through talks to children, special interest groups, walks on Canberra'a Black Mountain and more recently through the U3A, both in class and online. He knew the value of planting local native plants in gardens as they would survive local conditions and save water.
Johannes Gossweiler aka John Gossweiler or João Gossweiler, was state botanist to the Government of Angola from 1899 until his death. He made important collections in every district of Angola and created the first phytogeographic map of that country. His collections of African plant specimens were sent regularly to Lisbon, the British Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the University of Coimbra. Duplicates were also kept at the Herbarium of the Instituto de Investigação Agronómica in Angola. Today, many herbaria contain specimens he collected.
The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia, including scientific and historically significant collections and samples of Australian flora gathered by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during the voyage of HMS Endeavour in 1770.
The conservation and restoration of herbaria includes the preventive care, repair, and restoration of herbarium specimens. Collections of dried plant specimens are collected from their native habitats, identified by experts, pressed, and mounted onto archival paper. Care is taken to make sure major morphological characteristics are visible. Herbaria documentation provides a record of botanical diversity.
Fielding-Druce Herbarium, part of the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, located on South Parks Road, in Oxford, England. A herbarium is a collection of herbarium sheets, with a dried pressed specimen of the botanic species, whether they were bound into a book by one dedicated individual, or have been amassed into huge collections. They are like plant ID cards. As paper was expensive, multiple specimens are normally mounted on one sheet. The 2 cores of the Herbarium collection, are bequeathed to the University from Henry Fielding (1805-1851) containing a non-British and Irish collection. It also covers most taxonomic groups and geographical areas. It is particularly rich in nineteenth century material from the Americas and south and south east Asia. The other core a British and Irish collection from George Claridge Druce (1850-1932) in 1932, this is particularly rich in specimens from Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. Other collections were added later.
The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgamation of Australia's Virtual Herbarium and NZ Virtual Herbarium. As of 12 August 2014, more than five million specimens of the 8 million and upwards specimens available from participating institutions have been databased.
