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
  • Acrodiclidium (20)
  • Aiouea (22)
  • Ampelodaphne (1)
  • Anaueria (2)
  • Aniba (86)
  • Aydendron (4)
  • Beilschmiedia (12)
  • Caryodaphnopsis (8)
  • Cassytha (2)
  • Chanekia (1)
  • Cinnamomum (6)
  • Cryptocarya (16)
  • Endlicheria (60)
  • Gamanthera (2)
  • Hufelandia (2)
  • Laurus (2)
  • Licaria (29)
  • Litsea (5)
  • Mespilodaphne (6)
  • Mezilaurus (13)
  • Nectandra (207)
  • Ocotea (332)
  • Oreodaphne (11)
  • Paraia (1)
  • Persea (100)
  • Phoebe (34)
  • Pleurothyrium (39)
  • Rhodostemonodaphne (6)
  • Sassafras (1)
  • Silvia (2)
  • Systemonodaphne (3)
  • Yasunia (1)