The Western Australian Herbarium is the State

Herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia. It is part of the

State government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

, and has responsibility for the description and documentation of the

flora of Western Australia The flora of Western Australia comprises 10,551 published native vascular plant species and a further 1,131 unpublished species. They occur within 1,543 genera from 211 families; there are also 1,317 naturalised alien or invasive plant species mo ...

. It has the Index Herbariorum code of PERTH. The Hebarium forms 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 amalgamat ...

. The Herbarium is linked to the Western Australian 'Regional Herbaria Network' – which links approximately 84 regional community groups which have local reference collections. In 2000, with the

Wildflower Society of Western Australia The Wildflower Society of Western Australia (Inc.) (WSWA) is a member of the Australian Native Plants Society (Australia) The Australian Native Plants Society (Australia) (ANPSA) is a federation of seven state-based member organisations for peo ...

and the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority it published '' The Western Australian Flora – A Descriptive Catalogue''.

History

The Herbarium was formed as the amalgamation of three separate government department herbaria: those of the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...

, the Department of Agriculture, and the "forest herbarium" maintained by the

Conservator of Forests The Indian Forest Service (IFS) is one of the three All India Services of the Government of India. The other two All India Services being the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service. It was constituted in the year 1966 u ...

. The first of these was formed by

Bernard Henry Woodward Bernard Henry Woodward FGS (31 January 1846 – 14 October 1916) was an English-born Australian museum director and naturalist, associated with the Western Australian Museum from its beginnings in 1889 until 1914. Born in Islington, London ...

, Director of the Museum and Art Gallery, probably around 1895; the second was probably formed with the appointment of Alexander Morrison as botanist to the Department of Agriculture in 1897. In 1906 the Department of Agriculture handed its herbarium over to the Museum, but reclaimed it in 1911. The "forest herbarium" commenced in 1916. Around 1928, the Government took the decision to amalgamate the three into a single State Herbarium, to be managed by the Department of Agriculture. The "forest herbarium" was handed over more or less immediately, but the Museum was opposed to the merger, and did not finally hand over its specimens until around 1959. In 1988 departmental responsibility was shifted from the Department of Agriculture to the

Department of Conservation and Land Management The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) was a department of the Government of Western Australia that was responsible for implementing the state's conservation and environment legislation and regulations. It was created by the ...

, the

, and now the

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

Contributors

Significant contributors include: * Alex George * Arthur Weston

Publications

* Kingia * ''Nuytsia'' (journal) * Western Australian Herbarium Research Notes 1978-1986

References

External links

Regional Herbaria Network information
{{Authority control Botany in Western Australia Nature conservation in Western Australia Herbaria in Australia 1928 establishments in Australia

History

Contributors

See also

Publications

References

External links