10 Largest Herbaria in The World
69Herbarium Fern Image
A Herbarium Specimen of Goldie's Fern
Source: UWA.CA
What is a Herbarium?
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens. The plants are usually dried and mounted on sheets of special paper or (newsprint or blotter paper are most often used), but in some cases may be stored in a preservative such as alcohol.
Herbarium can also refer to actual buildings or institutes where plant specimens are stored and/or researched. Many museums, botanical gardens and universities, for example, maintain specialized herbaria. These herbaria are used for cataloging and identifying flora, the study of plant taxonomy, and studying the geographic and historical distribution of plants in different regions.
Read About Herbaria
 | In a letter from 1845, the 14-year-old Emily Dickinson asked her friend Abiah Root if she had started collecting flowers and plants for a herbarium: "it would be such a treasure to you; 'most all the girls are making one." Emily's own album of more than 400 pressed flowers and plants, carefully preserved, has long been a treasure of Harvard's Houghton Library. This beautifully produced, slipcased volume now makes it available to all readers interested in the life and writings of Emily Dickinson. Amazon Price: $146.50 List Price: $150.50 |
 | Celebrated photographer Nick Knight gives us a new view of flowers and plants in this dazzling volume. Astounded by the beauty of the pressed flowers and plants he saw at the herbarium of the Natural History Museum in London, Knight spent three and a half years choosing from among the museum’s six million specimens. Having selected 46 as the most visually arresting, he captures them here with his camera in a book as fresh as the greatest works of botanical art and illustration. Amazon Price: $120.00 List Price: $29.95 |
 | Robyn Stacey, one of Australia's most famous photographers, opens the doors of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney herbaria, and the history of Australia's flora in this well-illustrated volume on the nature of collecting. Accompanied by essayist, Ashley Hay, this collection of photographs tells the stories of those who collected, and what and when they collected, as well as the scientific background of each of the specimens. Amazon Price: $96.00 List Price: $100.00 |
 | Swedish photographer Edvard Koinberg creates a modern visual counterpart to Linnaeus s work, approaching the subject with equal passion and dedication. Having cultivated several hundred plants in his country house, Koinberg photographs each delicate bloom in his studio under perfect lighting conditions, depicting the life cycle of various flora as they bud, flourish and wane, resulting in a modern Calendarium Florae, a visual calendar that charts the year through flowers. Amazon Price: $5.32 List Price: $39.99 |
Herbarium Cabinet Contents
Compositae specimens from the Namibian collection.
Source: SmithsonianScience.org
10 Largest Herbaria in the World
At present, the ten largest herbaria in the world are:
- Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France)
- New York Botanical Garden (Bronx, New York, USA)
- Komarov Botanical Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia)
- Royal Bonanic Gardens (Kew, England, UK)
- Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques de la Ville de Geneve (Geneva, Switzerland)
- Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, Missouri, USA)
- British Museum of Natural History (London, England, UK)
- Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
- Swedish Museum of Natural History (Stockholm, Sweden)
- United States National Herbarium (Washington, DC, USA)
History of the Herbarium at Kew Gardens
Herbarium Cabinet
![Linnaeus' herbarium cabinet: a piece of furniture and its function [An article from: Endeavour]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PFS79MJ5L._SL75_.jpg) | The Swedish 18th-century naturalist Carolus (Carl) Linnaeus is habitually credited with laying the foundations of modern taxonomy through the invention of binominal nomenclature. However, another innovation of Linnaeus' has largely gone unnoticed. He seems to have been one of the first botanists to leave his herbarium unbound, keeping the sheets of dried plants separate and stacking them in a purpose built-cabinet. Understanding the significance of this seemingly mundane and simple invention opens a window onto the profound changes that natural history underwent in the 18th century. Amazon Price: $14.95 |
A Tour of The Manchester Museum Herbarium
Herbarium Poll
Have you ever been to a herbarium?
See results without votingRelated Herbaria Links
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