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
  • Calathea (1201)
  • Ctenanthe (24)
  • Hylaeanthe (16)
  • Ischnosiphon (378)
  • Koernickanthe (3)
  • Maranta (232)
  • Marantochloa (2)
  • Monotagma (259)
  • Myrosma (7)
  • Pleiostachya (27)
  • Sanblasia (2)
  • Saranthe (4)
  • Stromanthe (156)
  • Thalia (85)
  • Thymocarpus (6)