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
  • Achetaria (2)
  • Agalinis (12)
  • Alectra (1)
  • Alonsoa (9)
  • Angelonia (4)
  • Aragoa (21)
  • Bartsia (27)
  • Basistemon (2)
  • Beyrichia (1)
  • Buchnera (2)
  • Caconapea (3)
  • Calceolaria (138)
  • Capraria (8)
  • Castilleja (28)
  • Digitalis (1)
  • Escobedia (5)
  • Esterhazya (3)
  • Fagelia (5)
  • Galvezia (3)
  • Gerardia (4)
  • Gratiola (2)
  • Herpestis (2)
  • Lamourouxia (1)
  • Leucocarpus (2)
  • Lindernia (6)
  • Lophospermum (1)
  • Maurandya (1)
  • Mecardonia (1)
  • Melasma (1)
  • Mimulus (3)
  • Ourisia (1)
  • Russelia (4)
  • Scoparia (4)
  • Sibthorpia (2)
  • Stemodia (2)
  • Stemodiacra (2)
  • Tetranema (1)
  • Torenia (1)