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
  • Abutilon (350)
  • Abutilothamnus (1)
  • Acaulimalva (2)
  • Bakeridesia (27)
  • Bastardia (8)
  • Batesimalva (1)
  • Callianthe (132)
  • Calyptraemalva (1)
  • Cienfuegosia (12)
  • Dendrosida (1)
  • Fuertesimalva (2)
  • Fugosia (1)
  • Gaya (11)
  • Gossypium (31)
  • Hampea (17)
  • Herissantia (116)
  • Hibiscus (24)
  • Kosteletzkya (1)
  • Krapovickasia (2)
  • Malachra (2)
  • Malva (1)
  • Malvastrum (10)
  • Malvaviscus (7)
  • Malveopsis (1)
  • Monteiroa (1)
  • Neobrittonia (26)
  • Nototriche (7)
  • Ochroma (12)
  • Palaua (50)
  • Pavonia (49)
  • Peltaea (1)
  • Peltobractea (1)
  • Phragmocarpidium (1)
  • Pseudabutilon (5)
  • Robinsonella (15)
  • Sida (52)
  • Sidasodes (1)
  • Sidastrum (8)
  • Sphaeralcea (1)
  • Tarasa (2)
  • Tetrasida (2)
  • Thespesia (1)
  • Triumfetta (59)
  • Urena (4)
  • Urocarpidium (4)
  • Wercklea (6)
  • Wissadula (302)