The Western Australian Herbarium is the State Herbarium in Perth, Western Australia. It houses a collection of more than 845,000 dried specimens of plants, algae, bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts), lichens, fungi and slime moulds gathered from 1770 to today throughout Western Australia and from across the globe.[1]
The Herbarium forms part of the Australasian Virtual Herbarium. The Herbarium's collection represents the work of over 13,000 collectors, encompassing more than 500 surveys and 180 studies across Western Australia.[4]
The Herbarium is linked to the Western Australian 'Regional Herbaria Network' – which links approximately 84 regional community groups which have local reference collections.
History
The Herbarium was formed as the amalgamation of three separate government department herbaria: those of the Western Australian Museum, the Department of Agriculture, and the "forest herbarium" maintained by the Conservator of Forests.[5][6] The first of these was formed by Bernard Henry Woodward, Director of the Museum and Art Gallery, probably around 1895; the second was probably formed with the appointment of Alexander Morrison as botanist to the Department of Agriculture in 1897. In 1906 the Department of Agriculture handed its herbarium over to the Museum, but reclaimed it in 1911. The "forest herbarium" commenced in 1916. Around 1928, the Government decided to amalgamate the three into a single State Herbarium, to be managed by the Department of Agriculture. The "forest herbarium" was handed over more or less immediately, but the Museum was opposed to the merger, and did not finally hand over its specimens until around 1959.[7]
Charles Austin Gardner, who served as government botanist and curator of the state herbarium, played a crucial role in organising the collection. In 1924, as assistant botanist, he implemented the first systematic family arrangement based on Adolf Engler's system. Gardner later developed a decimal numbering system that formed the basis for organising specimens for many decades. He annotated J.C. Willis' "A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and Ferns" (4th edition, 1919) with his numbering system, as it provided a more portable reference than Engler's multi-volume works.[8]
Prior to 1938, the collections remained unmounted, but mounting work was completed by July 1946. The early organisation system included brown outer folders with handwritten genus names by Gardner on the lower left side and genus initials with specific epithets on the lower right. Around 1955, these were replaced with new folders using UNO pens and plastic stencils.[8]
When the State Herbarium was officially established in 1929, it was housed within the Department of Agriculture headquarters on St Georges Terrace. The collection was housed in the State Observatory building from December 1933 to 1959, organised within 25 wooden cupboards. During this period, bound herbarium indexes were produced to help locate specimens, though only the 1953 and 1959 editions have survived. The constant need to reshuffle specimens made maintaining these manual indexes challenging until computerisation in the 1980s. Following this, the herbarium moved to the Department of Agriculture headquarters (B Block) in South Perth (1959–1970).[8] In 1970, the herbarium moved to a new purpose-built facility in the Collier pine plantation, South Perth. The building featured two windowless, air-conditioned vaults with fire detection and carbon dioxide fire-fighting systems, as well as the ability to be sealed for fumigation. At the time of opening, the collection comprised more than 100,000 specimens, and the building was designed to accommodate 15 years of growth. The facility included a basement for specimen preparation and storage, a library, conference room, anatomy-cytology laboratory, and workspace for visiting botanists on the ground floor, with botanists' rooms and herbarium vaults on the first floor. The staff at this time included nine professional botanists, with five taxonomists working toward producing a Flora of Western Australia.[9] In 2009, the collections were relocated to their current home at the Keiran McNamara Conservation Science Centre in Kensington.[8]
Collected specimens of Hibbertia polyancistra being prepared in the field for future record and study at the WAHerbarium
The Western Australian Herbarium's research collections are housed at the Keiran McNamara Conservation Science Centre in Kensington, where they are maintained in four main vaults plus two specialised storage areas. A dedicated Types Vault houses type specimens and significant historical collections predating 1829, including materials from the notable botanists Robert Brown, Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander, and James Drummond. A sixth vault accommodates specimens on loan to the institution.[8]
The herbarium maintains several specialised collections. The wet or spirit collection is organised by container size and accession number, while the carpological collection (fruits and seeds) is stored alongside related family specimens. Type specimens, originally integrated within the main collection, are now separately housed with enhanced security and fire protection. The institution also maintains photographic slides, digital images in a departmental repository, and developing collections of microscope slides and molecular tissues.[8]
Specimens are stored in archival-quality pH-buffered folders, with contemporary specimens organised using a colour-coding system to distinguish materials from different Australian states and territories. Non-vascular plants, including algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, liverworts, and hornworts, are arranged alphabetically by genus due to ongoing taxonomic revisions. The herbarium employs electronic indexing for specimen location and management within its collection spaces.[8]
The herbarium maintains special security measures for its most valuable specimens, which are kept in a sophisticated fire-proof vault. This secure storage area is designed with an oxygen-displacement system that would remove oxygen from the room in the event of a fire to protect the collection.[10]
In addition to its research collections, the herbarium maintains a separate self-service reference herbarium that is open to the public, industry consultants, and community members for specimen identification purposes. While not comprehensive, this reference collection provides adequate resources for most identification needs.[1]
Digital access
The herbarium's collections are accessible through multiple digital platforms. The full database is available through FloraBase (the herbarium's primary portal), the Australasian Virtual Herbarium, the Atlas of Living Australia, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The herbarium has initiated a comprehensive digitisation project, using a high-resolution camera system to create digital images of all collection items for online access.[1]
Collection organisation
The herbarium's taxonomic arrangement has evolved significantly over time. Initially organised using Engler's system and Gardner's decimal numbering system, the collection underwent a major reorganisation in 2009 to reflect modern systematic relationships recognized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG III). In 2018, the herbarium implemented the APG IV phylogenetic arrangement of families, which is expected to remain relatively stable due to its basis in wide-ranging evidence and repeatable analysis methods.[8]
Within this system, genera and species are arranged alphabetically within their families to facilitate collections management and ease of access. The Taxonomic Review Committee (TRC) has adopted certain exceptions to the APG IV system based on specialist recommendations. For ferns and fern allies, the herbarium implemented the PPG I classification in 2020, while gymnosperm arrangements follow a standardised classification system for gymnosperms proposed by Christenhusz and colleagues in 2011.[8]
The herbarium has adopted a 'punctuated equilibrium model' for future arrangements, whereby systematic changes are implemented based on widely accepted collaborative taxonomic syntheses rather than individual research publications. This approach helps maintain stability while allowing for periodic updates as scientific consensus evolves. Non-vascular plants, including algae, fungi, lichens, mosses, liverworts, and hornworts, maintain an alphabetical arrangement by genus due to ongoing taxonomic flux.[8]
Kingia, published by the Western Australian Herbarium since 1988[13]
Western Australian Herbarium Research Notes (1978–1986)[14]
Census of the Vascular Plants of Western Australia, first published in February 1981 by John Green, then Curator of the Herbarium, followed by a second edition and supplements in 1985
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
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The International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) is an organization established to promote an understanding of plant biodiversity, facilitate international communication of research between botanists, and oversee matters of uniformity and stability in plant names. The IAPT was founded on July 18, 1950, at the Seventh International Botanical Congress in Stockholm, Sweden. The IAPT headquarters is located in Bratislava, Slovakia. Its president, since 2023, is Lúcia G. Lohmann of the Universidade de São Paulo; vice-president is Fabián Michelangeli of the New York Botanical Garden; and secretary-general is Mauricio Bonifacino of the Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Kingia is a genus consisting of a single species, Kingia australis, and belongs to the plant family Dasypogonaceae. The Aboriginal name bullanock is used as a common name for the plant. It has a thick pseudo-trunk consisting of accumulated leaf-bases, with a cluster of long, slender leaves on top. The trunk is usually unbranched, but can branch if the growing tip is damaged. Flowers occur in egg-shaped clusters on the ends of up to 100 long curved stems. Kingia grows extremely slowly, the trunk increasing in height by about 1½ centimetres per year. It can live for centuries, however, so can attain a substantial height; 400-year-old plants with a height of six metres are not unusual.
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Nikolai Stepanovich Turczaninow was a Russian botanist and plant collector who first identified several genera, and many species, of plants.
Gastrolobium propinquum is a shrub in the family Fabaceae, endemic to the Southwest Australia savanna region, which is toxic to many animals. It has been given the common name Hutt River poison.
Viktor Ferdinand Brotherus was a Finnish botanist who studied the mosses (Bryophyta). He is best known for authoring the treatment of 'Musci' in Engler and Prantl's Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien.
Neville Graeme Marchant is a retired Western Australian botanist. He was formerly the Director of the Western Australian Herbarium.
The flora of Western Australia comprises 10,842 published native vascular plant species and a further 1,030 unpublished species. They occur within 1,543 genera from 211 families; there are also 1,335 naturalised alien or invasive plant species more commonly known as weeds. There are an estimated 150,000 cryptogam species or nonvascular plants which include lichens, and fungi although only 1,786 species have been published, with 948 algae and 672 lichen the majority.
Adenanthos obovatus, commonly known as basket flower, or, jugflower, is a shrub of the plant family Proteaceae endemic to Southwest Australia. Described by French naturalist Jacques Labillardière in 1805, it had first been collected by Archibald Menzies in 1791. Within the genus Adenanthos, it lies in the section Eurylaema and is most closely related to A. barbiger. A. obovatus has hybridized with A. detmoldii to produce the hybrid A. × pamela. Several common names allude to the prominent red flowers of the species. It grows as a many-stemmed spreading bush up to 1 m (3.3 ft) high, and about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) across, with fine bright green foliage. Made up of single red flowers, the inflorescences appear from April to December, and peak in spring.
Adenanthos barbiger, the hairy jugflower or hairy glandflower, is a species of shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It usually grows to one metre high, and has bright red flowers that appear mostly between August and December. The species was first formally described in 1839 by English botanist John Lindley in A sketch of the vegetation of the Swan River colony.
Lambertia orbifolia, commonly known as the roundleaf honeysuckle, is a shrub or small tree that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has more or less circular leaves and groups of between four and six orange-red flowers.
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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.
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.
FloraNT is a public access web-based database of the Flora of the Northern Territory of Australia. It provides authoritative scientific information on some 4300 native taxa, including descriptions, maps, images, conservation status, nomenclatural details together with names used by various aboriginal groups. Alien taxa are also recorded. Users can access fact sheets on species and some details of the specimens held in the Northern Territory Herbarium, together with keys, and some regional factsheets.
Stenanthera pungens is a species of shrub that is endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It was initially described in 2002 by Gregory John Keighery who gave it the name Conostephium pungens and published the description in the Nordic Journal of Botany. In 2016, Michael Clyde Hislop changed the name to Stenanthera pungens and the change has been accepted by the Australian Plant Census. It is only known from the type location where it grows on gypsum dunes near a salt lake east of Nyabing in the Mallee biogeographic region.
↑ Marchant, Neville (2005) "Documenting a flora: a History of the Western Australian Herbarium and its Collections", Early Days: Journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, vol. 12, 2005, pp. 566–583
↑ Underwood, Roger (Roger John); Western Australia. Department of Environment and Conservation; Underwood, Roger (2011), A botanical journey: the story of the Western Australian Herbarium, Dept. of Environment and conservation, ISBN978-1-921703-12-6
1 2 Green, J. W. "History of early Western Australian herbaria". In Short, P. S. (ed.). History of systematic botany in Australasia. Australian Systematic Botany Society. pp.23–27. ISBN0-7316-8463-X.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Parker, Cheryl M.; Percy-Bower, Julia M.; James, Shelley A. (2022). "From Engler to APGIV: a short history of the botanical arrangement of the Western Australian Herbarium collections". Nuytsia. 33: 113–141.
↑ Western Australia. Department of Agriculture; Western Australia. Department of Conservation and Land Management; Western Australian Herbarium (1988), Kingia, Western Australian Herbarium, Dept. of Agriculture, ISSN0819-1247
↑ Western Australian Herbarium; Western Australia. Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (1978), Western Australian Herbarium Research Notes, Western Australian Herbarium, ISSN0155-7165
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