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
  • Amphistelma (3)
  • Asclepias (11)
  • Blepharodon (4)
  • Calostigma (1)
  • Calotropis (5)
  • Chthamalia (1)
  • Cryptostegia (2)
  • Cynanchum (28)
  • Dictyanthus (4)
  • Ditassa (20)
  • Fischeria (3)
  • Gonolobus (20)
  • Gothofreda (1)
  • Irmischia (1)
  • Jobinia (1)
  • Laubertia (1)
  • Macroscepis (2)
  • Marsdenia (26)
  • Matelea (22)
  • Melinia (1)
  • Metastelma (21)
  • Mitostigma (1)
  • Nephradenia (1)
  • Orthosia (7)
  • Oxypetalum (10)
  • Oxystelma (2)
  • Peplonia (1)
  • Philibertella (1)
  • Philibertia (1)
  • Prosthecidiscus (3)
  • Roulinia (1)
  • Sarcostemma (4)
  • Scyphostelma (2)
  • Steleostemma (1)
  • Tassadia (8)
  • Vailia (5)
  • Vincetoxicum (4)