The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia,Thiers, B. (2020 – continuously updated). National Herbarium of New South Wales Collections Summary. ''Index Herbariorum. A global directory of public herbaria and associated staff. New York Botanical Garden's Virtual Herbarium.'' Available from
NSW Collections Summary
(accessed 21 August 2020) including scientific and historically significant collections and samples of Australian flora gathered by

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...

and

Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Sweden, Swedish naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot o ...

during the voyage of in 1770. The Herbarium is a centre for Australian plant research. These specimens are used for studies of Australian native plants, their relationships and classification. A botanical information service is also provided including native plant identifications. The National Herbarium is in the Robert Brown Building at the Royal Botanic Garden on Mrs Macquaries Road in Sydney. In June 2018 plans to relocate the Herbarium to a new purpose built Centre of Innovation in Plant Sciences to be at the

Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan is a botanical garden located in a hilly area of the South-western Sydney, southwestern Sydney suburb of , between Campbelltown, New South Wales, Campbelltown and Camden, New South Wales, Camden, New S ...

were announced. In addition to two journals, ''Telopea'' and ''Cunninghamia'', the herbarium is responsible for the online database (and keys) to NSW Flora, PlantNet. The Index Herbariorum Code for the National Herbarium of New South Wales is NSW.

History

The Herbarium began in 1853 when Charles Moore, Director of the Botanic Garden, assembled approximately 1,800 native specimens. However, the establishment date is said to be 1896 by the encyclopedia of Australian Science.

Buildings

1901–1982: A purpose-built building to house the Herbarium collection and a botanical museum designed by the Government Architect opened in 1901. The building was known as Maiden's Herbarium. It is now known as the Anderson Building and is used for administration and contains the Maiden Theatre, in memory of

Joseph Henry Maiden Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...

, a previous Botanic Garden's Director. 1982–2018: The Robert Brown Building opened in 1982. The new Herbarium building was named in honour of colonial botanist

Robert Brown Robert Brown may refer to: Robert Brown (born 1965), British Director, Animator and author Entertainers and artists * Washboard Sam or Robert Brown (1910–1966), American musician and singer * Robert W. Brown (1917–2009), American printmaker ...

. It has three levels when it was opened in 1982 by

Neville Wran Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman o ...

, housing the herbarium collection, staff offices, a laboratory, scanning electron microscope and full drying room and library. A decade later, a fourth level was added to provide more work spaces and shelving and a sloping roof to stop leaks. 2019–onwards: In June 2018 plans to relocate the Herbarium to a new purpose built Centre of Innovation in Plant Sciences to be at the

were announced.

Collection

The collection has a worldwide scope with an emphasis on plants of New South Wales and Australian flora including flowering plants, conifers, cycads, ferns, bryophytes, lichens, macroalgae and fungi. The collection includes 805 of the specimens

and

collected. Specimen records from the collection are contributed to Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH), a collaborative project of the Commonwealth, state and territory herbaria in Australia.

Digitisation

More than 7,000 of the specimens were digitised as part of the Global Plants Initiative. These digitised specimens form part of the

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgama ...

, an online resource available for anyone to use. On 4 June 2018 the announcement that the National Herbarium of NSW would close while the collection of plant specimens was relocated from the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney to a purpose-built facility at

included the plans to digitise 1.43 million herbarium plant specimens.

Botanical illustration

The first botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney,

Margaret Flockton Margaret Lilian Flockton (29 September 1861 Sussex – 12 August 1953 Sydney), is most commonly recognized as a botanical artist famous for her botanical illustrations of ''"The Forest Flora of New South Wales"'' (some 300 plates), ''"A Criti ...

, was appointed in 1901 when the National Herbarium opened.

Publications

The Herbarium publishes the journal, ''Telopea'', formerly entitled ''Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium''. The journal covers botany in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, specialising in the flora of New South Wales. The herbarium also publishes an online key to the plants of New South Wales, together with their descriptions via PlantNet This online resource is based largely on the ''Flora of New South Wales''

Daniel Solander Library

The library at the Royal Botanic Garden is part of the National Herbarium. It was established in 1852 and is named after

who was employed in 1768 by

to accompany him on

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

's first voyage to the Pacific.

References

External links

Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney

Telopea (journal)

Retrieved 18 May 2018. {{Authority control Herbaria in Australia Buildings and structures in New South Wales 1853 establishments in Australia