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
  • Allamanda (4)
  • Allomarkgrafia (2)
  • Alstonia (1)
  • Ambelania (14)
  • Anacampta (1)
  • Anartia (1)
  • Angadenia (1)
  • Aspidosperma (159)
  • Bonafousia (7)
  • Cameraria (1)
  • Cascabela (2)
  • Condylocarpon (7)
  • Couma (27)
  • Cufodontia (2)
  • Dipladenia (3)
  • Echites (13)
  • Ervatamia (1)
  • Fernaldia (2)
  • Forsteronia (36)
  • Galactophora (5)
  • Geissospermum (5)
  • Haemadictyon (1)
  • Hancornia (4)
  • Himatanthus (23)
  • Lacmellea (22)
  • Laseguea (2)
  • Macoubea (7)
  • Malouetia (32)
  • Mandevilla (45)
  • Mesechites (4)
  • Microplumeria (1)
  • Molongum (1)
  • Mortoniella (3)
  • Neocouma (3)
  • Nerium (4)
  • Odontadenia (25)
  • Parahancornia (17)
  • Peltastes (10)
  • Peschiera (2)
  • Plumeria (17)
  • Prestonia (41)
  • Quadricasaea (2)
  • Rauvolfia (42)
  • Rhabdadenia (7)
  • Secondatia (1)
  • Stemmadenia (15)
  • Stenosolen (3)
  • Tabernaemontana (102)
  • Thenardia (1)
  • Thevetia (7)
  • Thyrsanthus (1)
  • Tintinnabularia (1)
  • Tonduzia (4)
  • Vallesia (3)
  • Vinca (1)
  • Willoughbya (2)
  • Woytkowskia (1)
  • Zschokkea (16)