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
  • Acanthococos (1)
  • Acoelorraphe (24)
  • Acrocomia (51)
  • Aiphanes (72)
  • Allagoptera (37)
  • Ammandra (11)
  • Aphandra (4)
  • Areca (2)
  • Aristeyera (1)
  • Asterogyne (76)
  • Astrocaryum (185)
  • Attalea (203)
  • Bactris (745)
  • Brahea (45)
  • Butia (58)
  • Calamus (1)
  • Calyptrogyne (87)
  • Caryota (10)
  • Catoblastus (2)
  • Catostigma (6)
  • Ceroxylon (63)
  • Chamaedorea (1240)
  • Chamaerops (2)
  • Chelyocarpus (17)
  • Chrysalidocarpus (1)
  • Coccothrinax (20)
  • Cocos (16)
  • Colpothrinax (35)
  • Copernicia (18)
  • Cryosophila (105)
  • Desmoncus (184)
  • Dictyocaryum (8)
  • Dictyosperma (4)
  • Elaeis (56)
  • Erythea (1)
  • Euterpe (261)
  • Geonoma (1081)
  • Guilielma (1)
  • Hyospathe (78)
  • Iriartea (67)
  • Iriartella (70)
  • Jessenia (12)
  • Jubaea (6)
  • Latania (2)
  • Leopoldinia (36)
  • Lepidocaryum (36)
  • Manicaria (70)
  • Mauritia (30)
  • Mauritiella (53)
  • Maximiliana (12)
  • Metroxylon (1)
  • Neonicholsonia (21)
  • Oenocarpus (157)
  • Opsiandra (1)
  • Orbignya (35)
  • Parajubaea (11)
  • Paurotis (1)
  • Phoenix (11)
  • Pholidostachys (4)
  • Phytelephas (53)
  • Polyandrococos (4)
  • Prestoea (136)
  • Pritchardia (7)
  • Ptychosperma (24)
  • Reinhardtia (123)
  • Rhapis (2)
  • Roystonea (35)
  • Sabal (58)
  • Scheelea (22)
  • Schippia (3)
  • Socratea (104)
  • Syagrus (202)
  • Synechanthus (145)
  • Thrinax (32)
  • Trithrinax (6)
  • Veitchia (4)
  • Washingtonia (4)
  • Welfia (34)
  • Wendlandiella (3)
  • Wettinia (88)
  • Ynesa (4)
  • Yuyba (1)