In the News: The Garden Celebrates its
Six Millionth Herbarium Specimen

photo by Jami Ford

Dr. Robert Magill, vice president of science and conservation; Dr. Thomas Croat; and Dr. James Solomon, curator of the herbarium.

The Herbarium
The herbarium at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis is a library of pressed and dried plant specimens.

The collection contains specimens of mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, and flowering plants, some more than 300 years old.

During the last five years, the Garden has added an average of 123,000 mounted specimens per year to its collection through the exploration and collecting activities of our botanists and through exchange with other institutions.

The herbarium is the second largest in the Western hemisphere and one of the fastest growing in the world.

Learn more here.

photo by Jami Ford

Above: Anthurium centimillesimum, the six millionth addition to the Garden's herbarium. The leaf on this plant is over six feet in height. It had to be mounted on seven panels to be preserved.

Science and Conservation
With scientists on six continents and 36 countries around the globe, the Missouri Botanical Garden hosts one of the three largest plant science programs in the world, along with the New York Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

In 1971, there were just three Ph.D. botanists at the Garden. Today, there are nearly 50.

With assistance from 75 technical and support personnel, over two dozen graduate students, and 70 volunteers, Garden scientists conduct the essential work of plant identification, classification, and conservation in locations throughout the world.

Learn more about the Garden's science and conservation efforts.