The Botanische Staatssammlung München is a notable

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, 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 sh ...

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 Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. 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 (; 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) from 1806 to 1825. He was ...

to maintain the royal herbarium, which grew to include major collections from the University of München and botanist

Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber (17 January 1739 – 10 December 1810), often styled J.C.D. von Schreber, was a German Natural history, naturalist. Career Schreber was appointed professor of'' materia medica'' at the University of Erlangen- ...

, a student of

Carl von Linné Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organi ...

. 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 botany, botanist and explorer. Between 1817 and 1820, he travelled 10,000 km through Brazil while collecting botanical specimens. His m ...

on a three-year expedition to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, 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 considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

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 ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

, 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 () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, and vascular plants of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, and regions of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, as well as in

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

s and

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

bryophyte Bryophytes () are a group of embryophyte, land plants (embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic Division (taxonomy), division referred to as Bryophyta ''Sensu#Common qualifiers, sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular pla ...

s (350,000 specimens);

(350,000 specimens);

s (300,000 specimens); and

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

(150,000 specimens). The collection of lichens is one of the largest in the world and includes that made by Ferdinand Christian Gustav Arnold 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 continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an,

South-East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia i ...

n and

n flowering plants as well as of

s, and

. It also offers expert advice and identification services for certain types of plants and fungi. Between 1992 and 2004 the director was Hannes Hertel, 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. Since 2001 the Botanische Staatssammlung München is maintaining the database IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae with bibliographic and collection-related information on exsiccatae. Botanisches Institut Menzingerstr67 anno2010 Nordseite

Botanisches Institut Menzingerstr67 anno2010 Nordseite

References

External links

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 Research institutes in Munich

See also

References

External links