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| National Herbarium (Brazil) | |
|---|---|
| Name | National Herbarium (Brazil) |
| Native name | Herbário Nacional (Brasil) |
| Established | 1890 |
| Location | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Type | Herbarium, research institution |
| Collections | vascular plants, bryophytes, fungi, algae, types |
National Herbarium (Brazil) is the principal botanical collection and research institution in Brazil located in Rio de Janeiro. It serves as a national reference for plant taxonomy, biodiversity inventories, and conservation policy supporting institutions such as the Ministry of the Environment (Brazil), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The herbarium collaborates with international organizations including the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Smithsonian Institution.
The institution traces roots to 19th-century expeditions linked with figures such as Dom Pedro II, Frederick William I, Prince of Wied and collections brought by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius and Johann Baptist von Spix. Early development involved exchanges with the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, the Herbarium Berolinense, and the New York Botanical Garden. The herbarium expanded through donations and government initiatives including partnerships with the National Museum of Brazil and the Instituto Butantan. During the 20th century the herbarium participated in projects with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Convention on Biological Diversity, while collaborating with researchers from the University of São Paulo, State University of Campinas, and Federal University of Minas Gerais.
The collection comprises vascular plants, bryophytes, fungi, algae and type specimens derived from expeditions by Alexander von Humboldt-influenced networks, collectors like Alfred Russel Wallace and Herbert Huntingdon Smith, and botanists such as Adolpho Ducke and Gustav Wettstein. Holdings include specimens from the Amazon Rainforest, the Pantanal, the Cerrado, the Atlantic Forest, and the Caatinga. The herbarium houses historical collections exchanged with the British Museum (Natural History), the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. Important type specimens link to taxa described by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Carl Linnaeus, George Bentham, and Robert Brown. Collaborative registers align with databases like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the Integrated Digitized Biocollections, and the Catalogue of Life.
Taxonomic research emphasizes floristic revisions, monographs, and phylogenetic studies in partnership with the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Academia Brasileira de Ciências, and international labs at the University of Oxford, Harvard University Herbaria, and the Max Planck Society. Ongoing projects include systematics of families studied by specialists who publish in journals such as Taxon, Cladistics, and the American Journal of Botany. Molecular work uses facilities akin to those at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Broad Institute for DNA barcoding aligned with protocols from the International Barcode of Life initiative. Research outputs support conservation assessments for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and regional lists managed by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment.
The herbarium provides specimen-based evidence for conservation programs including restoration plans for the Serra do Mar State Park, management of the Iguaçu National Park flora, and ex situ strategies associated with the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro. It supplies data to environmental agencies like the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources and collaborates with NGOs including WWF-Brasil and Conservation International. Services include identification for customs at the Brazilian Customs Service, support for the National System of Protected Areas (SNUC), and expert testimony for litigation involving the Supreme Federal Court (Brazil) on environmental disputes.
Facilities include climate-controlled repositories, comparative libraries with works from the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil, and microscopy suites similar to those at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Digitization projects follow standards from the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities and the Global Plants Initiative, producing online images served to platforms such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the JSTOR Global Plants archive. Collaborative digitization grants were secured from foundations like the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and partnerships with tech centers including the Brazilian National Laboratory for Scientific Computing.
Public programs and trainings partner with the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, the Museu Nacional (Brazil), and universities like the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro to conduct workshops, citizen science initiatives, and teacher training aligned with curricula from the Ministry of Education (Brazil). Outreach engages international networks such as the Botanical Gardens Conservation International and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections to host symposiums, exhibitions, and collaborative internships with students from the University of Cambridge, University of São Paulo, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Governance involves oversight by national authorities including agencies comparable to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Brazil), advisory boards with members from the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and international advisors drawn from the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences (United States). Funding sources combine governmental allocations, competitive grants from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), philanthropic support from organizations like the Wellcome Trust, and collaborative funding via international programs such as the United Nations Development Programme.
Category:Herbaria Category:Botany in Brazil Category:Research institutes in Brazil