Herbarium

The development of the Herbarium has been a high priority since the inception of the Gardens. Despite the lack of permanent premises in the early years, development continued, and still does so today.

The long term aim of the Curator of the Herbarium is to obtain specimens of the some 2000 plant species that occur naturally within the Collecting Region, a philosophy that supports the strictly regional concept of the Gardens. The collection includes introduced species that have become naturalised. The Collecting Region covers the catchments of the Clyde, Deua and Tuross Rivers covering a wide variety of habitats and plant communities; from seaside dunes to subalpine areas, from sandstone heaths to cool temperate rainforests, and from tall sclerophyll forests to grasslands. Displays from the Herbarium collection are periodically presented.

Scientific Development

The Herbarium is central to the scientific aspect of the Gardens. The collection has been documented, identified and processed in accordance with scientific best practices. The contents of the Herbarium are 100% databased.

Voucher material relating to the Living Collection is housed in the Herbarium. This allows for genetic research into provenanced flora of the Collecting Region. The collection also contains a number of specimens showing the variation in form and colour of particular species.

By dividing the collecting region into districts, and collecting exhaustively within each district, the distribution of species can be plotted and then studied. Furthermore, many species have been collected from outside their published range; it is expected that this facet of the work will increase in importance. Other work associated with collecting is the location of unrecorded populations of threatened and endangered species.

Staffing

The collecting and processing of specimens is carried out by volunteers under the supervision of an Honorary Curator. The Herbarium would not exist without the contribution of the volunteers; their contribution is immeasurable.

Plant List

This is a list of scientific specimens held in the Herbarium. The file is 574KB in size.

Click here to view our Plant List in .csv format which should be compatible with your choice of spreadsheet.