United States National Herbarium (US-Botany)

The United States National Herbarium was founded in 1848, when the first collections were accessioned from the United States Exploring Expedition (50,000 specimens of 10,000 species). Current holdings total 5 million specimens, making this collection among the ten largest in the world representing about 8% of the plant collection resources of the United States. The herbarium is especially rich in type specimens (@110,000).
Contacts: Rusty Russell, Collections Manager, russellr@si.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 6 May 2014
Digital Metadata: EML File
Collection Statistics
  • 238,399 specimen records
  • 48,651 (20%) georeferenced
  • 47,384 (20%) with images (47,384 total images)
  • 172,766 (72%) identified to species
  • 545 families
  • 4,191 genera
  • 36,612 species
  • 38,873 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
Taxon Distribution
Taxon Distribution
  • Agave (135)
  • Alstroemeria (131)
  • Amaryllis (19)
  • Bomarea (258)
  • Caliphruria (5)
  • Chlidanthus (6)
  • Cooperia (2)
  • Crinum (111)
  • Curculigo (52)
  • Distrepta (3)
  • Eucharis (61)
  • Eucrosia (21)
  • Eustephia (8)
  • Furcraea (125)
  • Habranthus (3)
  • Haemanthus (1)
  • Hippeastrum (127)
  • Hymenocallis (102)
  • Hypoxis (125)
  • Leptochiton (1)
  • Manfreda (1)
  • Pamianthe (2)
  • Phaedranassa (27)
  • Polianthes (6)
  • Stenomesson (70)
  • Urceolina (7)
  • Zephyranthes (96)