Kew Herbarium

Kew Herbarium
Name	Kew Herbarium
Established	1853
Location	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Type	Research herbarium
Collections	Vascular plants, Bryophytes, Fungi, Algae
Director	Directors of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Website	Kew science

Kew Herbarium is the comprehensive plant specimen repository of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, housing one of the world’s largest collections of preserved plants used for systematic botany, phylogenetics, conservation assessments and biogeography. The Herbarium serves as a research infrastructure supporting curators, taxonomists and international collaborators from institutions such as the Natural History Museum, London, the British Museum, the Linnean Society, and the Royal Society. Its specimens underpin global initiatives involving UNESCO, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

History

The Herbarium’s origins trace to the 18th and 19th centuries when collectors associated with institutions like the Royal Society, the East India Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, and the British Museum contributed specimens gathered during expeditions led by figures such as Joseph Banks, Robert Brown, William Roxburgh, and George Bentham. During the Victorian era the Herbarium expanded alongside botanical enterprises tied to the Admiralty, the Board of Trade and imperial projects involving the Cape Colony, India, Australia and the Caribbean. Collaborations and exchanges with botanical gardens including the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Oxford Botanic Garden, Edinburgh Botanic Garden and Kew’s sister institutions fostered comparative studies with herbaria at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Major 20th-century developments involved directors and curators connected to names such as Ernest Wilson, Arthur Hill, and Ronald Good, and scientific links to universities including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh. The Herbarium’s stewardship evolved through wartime exigencies involving the War Office and postwar projects with bodies like the Nature Conservancy Council and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Collections and Holdings

The Herbarium comprises millions of specimens spanning vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, fungi and algae assembled from regions explored by expeditions of James Cook, Alexander von Humboldt, David Livingstone, Alfred Russel Wallace and Joseph Dalton Hooker. Type specimens and historic collections by collectors such as Banks, Solander, Thunberg, Hooker, Martius, Humboldt, Wallace, and Beccari are central to taxonomic verification used by researchers at institutions like the Royal Society, the Linnean Society and the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. Holdings include floras and monographs tied to works by Carl Linnaeus, George Bentham, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Alphonse de Candolle and John Lindley, and specimen exchanges with herbarium networks like Index Herbariorum, GBIF and the Global Plants Initiative. The collection supports conservation lists compiled by IUCN and Red List assessors, regional floras for Africa, Australasia, South America and Southeast Asia, and type-based revisions published in journals such as Kew Bulletin, Taxon and Systematic Botany.

Taxonomy and Research Activities

Research at the Herbarium addresses systematics, phylogeny, floristics and nomenclature through collaborations with researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Imperial College London, University College London, the Natural History Museum, the Smithsonian Institution and the New York Botanical Garden. Molecular phylogenetics projects incorporate methods pioneered in laboratories at Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Max Planck Institute, integrating sequence data linked to initiatives such as the Tree of Life, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and the Barcode of Life. Taxonomic revisions produced by staff and visiting researchers reference international codes including the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, and feed into databases managed by organizations like IPNI, Tropicos and Plants of the World Online. The Herbarium’s expertise informs conservation policy work with UNEP, the CBD Secretariat, national botanical surveys, botanical nomenclature panels, and training programmes run with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.

Digitisation and Access

Digitisation programmes at the Herbarium have partnered with GBIF, JSTOR Global Plants, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s own science portal and the Biodiversity Heritage Library to increase specimen accessibility for researchers at institutions such as Harvard University Herbaria, Missouri Botanical Garden and the New York Botanical Garden. High-resolution imaging, databasing and georeferencing efforts have been undertaken in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, the European Commission research networks, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and philanthropic partners like the Garfield Weston Foundation. Digital data supports downstream projects with universities including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, King's College London and the University of Manchester, and powers applied work for conservation NGOs such as Conservation International, WWF and Fauna & Flora International. Open data release aligns with standards promulgated by organizations like TDWG, DataONE and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Facilities and Conservation Practices

Specimen curation and long-term preservation are carried out in climate-controlled repositories modeled on standards used by the Natural History Museum, British Library preservation teams and the National Archives. Conservation treatments follow protocols developed with conservators from institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Courtauld Institute, the National Museum Wales and the Wallace Collection, and involve integrated pest management strategies advised by entomological specialists from the Royal Entomological Society. Infrastructure investments have included laboratory collaborations with the Francis Crick Institute, sequencing partnerships with EMBL-EBI and cold-storage and seed-banking coordination with the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst and botanical seed conservation networks. Governance and risk management draw on collections policies aligned to UNESCO Memory of the World and national legislation administered by agencies including the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for aspects of international specimen exchange.

Education and Public Outreach

Public engagement programmes link the Herbarium with the Royal Botanic Gardens’ exhibitions, educational curricula at schools and universities such as University of Sheffield, University of Glasgow and University of Leeds, and outreach partnerships with museums including the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and the V&A. Citizen science initiatives collaborate with platforms like iNaturalist and Zooniverse and NGOs including the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland and Plantlife to involve volunteers in digitisation and monitoring projects. Training courses, workshops and lectures are provided in partnership with the Linnean Society, the Royal Society, Kew’s training arm and international partners such as the United Nations Environment Programme and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

Category:Herbaria Category:Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Category:Botanical research institutions