The Botanische Staatssammlung München is a notable herbarium and scientific center maintained by th
Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns
Its building is located within the Botanischer Garten München-Nymphenburg area at Menzinger Straße 67, München,

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. A center for data science and biodiversity informatics calle
SNSB IT Center
is affiliated. Its library is open to the public; scientific collections are open to researchers by appointment. The institution was established in 1813 by King

Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria Maximilian I Joseph (german: Maximilian I. Joseph; 27 May 1756 – 13 October 1825) was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, prince-elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria (as Maximilian I Joseph) ...

to maintain the royal herbarium, which grew to include major collections from the University of München and botanist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber, a student of

Carl von Linné Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

. In 1817, Maximilian sent botanist

Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius Carl Friedrich Philipp (Karl Friedrich Philipp) von Martius (17 April 1794 – 13 December 1868) was a German botanist and explorer. Life Martius was born at Erlangen, the son of Prof Ernst Wilhelm Martius, court apothecary. He graduated PhD ...

on a three-year expedition to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and upon his return appointed him the herbarium's curator. Martius' collection of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

n vascular plants is among the world's foremost at 25,000–30,000 specimens representing 7,300 species. Today the herbarium contains about 3.2 million dried specimens of plants and

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

, which is estimated to reflect about 25% of the world's known plant species. It has major strengths in the flora of

and the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

, and vascular plants of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, and regions of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, as well as in lichens and

. As of 2009, collection sizes were approximately as follows: vascular plants (1,800,000 specimens);

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited in s ...

s (350,000 specimens);

(350,000 specimens); lichens (300,000 specimens); and algae (150,000 specimens). The collection of lichens is one of the largest in the world and includes that made by

Ferdinand Christian Gustav Arnold Ferdinand Christian Gustav Arnold (24 February 1828 – 8 August 1901) was a German lichenologist and taxonomist born in Ansbach, Bavaria. Even as a high school student he showed an active interest in botany: "Ich und August Gattinger ... durchst ...

and others who collected in the nineteenth century. The herbarium grows at an average rate of 16,000 specimens per year. The center's research focuses on exploration and study of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an,

South-East Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

n and

n flowering plants as well as of

, lichens, and algae. It also offers expert advice and identification services for certain types of plants and fungi. Between 1992 and 2004 the director was

Hannes Hertel Hannes Hertel is a German botanist and taxonomist and was Director of the State Herbarium in Munich, Germany 1992 - 2004. His specialist areas are the fungi and lichens. Early life and education Hannes Hertel was born in 1939. His doctorate was ...

, although he had been acting as director since 1985 having started working there as a curator in 1973. As at 2021 the director of the Botanische Staatssammlung München is Prof. Dr. Gudrun Kadereit. Botanisches Institut Menzingerstr67 anno2010 Nordseite

Botanisches Institut Menzingerstr67 anno2010 Nordseite

References

Botanische Staatssammlung München

Biodiversity Collections Index entry

Major collections in the Botanische Staatssammlung München
* Hertel, H., and Schreiber, A., "Die Botanische Staatssammlung München 1813-1988 (Eine Übersicht über die Sammlungsbestände)", in ''Mitteilungen aus der Botanischen Staatssammlung München'' 26: 81-512, 1988. ISSN 0006-8179. {{DEFAULTSORT:Botanische Staatssammlung Munchen Munchen, Botanische Staatssammlung

See also

References