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National Herbarium of New South Wales

Coordinates:33°52′00″S151°13′05″E/ 33.866575°S 151.217923°E/-33.866575; 151.217923
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National Herbarium of New South Wales
Joseph Maidenin the Herbarium Royal Botanic Gardensc.1895
Established1853(1853)
AddressMrs Macquaries Road, Sydney, NSW, 2000
Location
Sydney
,
New South Wales
,
Australia
Coordinates(−33.865390, 151.217535)
WebsiteNational Herbarium of NSW

TheNational Herbarium of New South Waleswas established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia,[1]including scientific and historically significant collections and samples of Australian flora gathered byJoseph BanksandDaniel Solanderduring the voyage ofHMSEndeavourin 1770.[2]

The Herbarium is a centre for Australian plant research. These specimens are used for studies of Australian native plants, their relationships and classification. A botanical information service is also provided including native plant identifications.[3]

The National Herbarium is in the Robert Brown Building at theRoyal Botanic Gardenon Mrs Macquaries Road in Sydney. In June 2018 plans to relocate the Herbarium to a new purpose built Centre of Innovation in Plant Sciences to be at theAustralian Botanic Garden Mount Annanwere announced.

In addition to two journals,Telopea[4]andCunninghamia,[5]the herbarium is responsible for the online database (and keys) to NSW Flora,PlantNet.[6]

The Index Herbariorum Code for the National Herbarium of New South Wales isNSW.[7]

History

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The Herbarium began in 1853 whenCharles Moore,Director of the Botanic Garden, assembled approximately 1,800 native specimens.[8]However, the establishment date is said to be 1896 by the encyclopedia of Australian Science.[9]

Buildings

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1901–1982:A purpose-built building to house the Herbarium collection and a botanical museum designed by the Government Architect opened in 1901.[10][11][12]The building was known as Maiden's Herbarium.[13]It is now known as the Anderson Building and is used for administration and contains the Maiden Theatre, in memory ofJoseph Henry Maiden,a previous Botanic Garden's Director.[14]

1982–2018:The Robert Brown Building opened in 1982.[13]The new Herbarium building was named in honour of colonial botanistRobert Brown.It has three levels when it was opened in 1982 byNeville Wran,housing the herbarium collection, staff offices, a laboratory, scanning electron microscope and full drying room and library. A decade later, a fourth level was added to provide more work spaces and shelving and a sloping roof to stop leaks.[15][16]

2019–onwards:In June 2018 plans to relocate the Herbarium to a new purpose built Centre of Innovation in Plant Sciences to be at theAustralian Botanic Garden Mount Annanwere announced.[17]

Collection

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The collection has a worldwide scope with an emphasis on plants of New South Wales and Australian flora including flowering plants, conifers, cycads, ferns, bryophytes, lichens, macroalgae and fungi.[18][19]The collection includes 805 of the specimensJoseph BanksandDaniel Solandercollected.[20]

Specimen records from the collection are contributed to Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH), a collaborative project of the Commonwealth, state and territory herbaria in Australia.[21]

Digitisation

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More than 7,000 of the specimens were digitised[2]as part of the Global Plants Initiative.[22]These digitised specimens form part of theAustralasian Virtual Herbarium,an online resource available for anyone to use. On 4 June 2018 the announcement that the National Herbarium of NSW would close while the collection of plant specimens was relocated from the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney to a purpose-built facility atAustralian Botanic Garden Mount Annanincluded the plans to digitise 1.43 million herbarium plant specimens.[23]

Botanical illustration

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The first botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney,Margaret Flockton,was appointed in 1901 when the National Herbarium opened.[24]

Publications

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The Herbarium publishes the journal,Telopea,formerly entitledContributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium.[25][26]The journal covers botany in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, specialising in the flora of New South Wales.[4]

The herbarium also publishes an online key to the plants of New South Wales, together with their descriptions via PlantNet[6]This online resource is based largely on theFlora of New South Wales[27]

Daniel Solander Library

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The library at the Royal Botanic Garden is part of the National Herbarium.[28]It was established in 1852 and is named afterDaniel Solander[29]who was employed in 1768 byJoseph Banksto accompany him onJames Cook's first voyage to the Pacific.[30][31]

See also

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References

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  1. ^Thiers, B. (2020 – continuously updated). National Herbarium of New South Wales Collections Summary.Index Herbariorum. A global directory of public herbaria and associated staff. New York Botanical Garden's Virtual Herbarium.Available from:NSW Collections Summary(accessed 21 August 2020)
  2. ^abRoyal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust (N.S.W.) (1981),Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Annual Report 2014-15(PDF),Govt. Printer,ISSN0810-2538,archived fromthe original(PDF)on 4 April 2017,retrieved7 February2017
  3. ^"Royal Botanic Gardens (Sydney, N.S.W.). – People and organisations".Trove.Retrieved8 April2017.
  4. ^ab"Telopea".The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.Retrieved6 February2017.
  5. ^"Cunninghamia (journal)".Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.Retrieved28 October2019.
  6. ^ab"NEW SOUTH WALES FLORA ONLINE A comprehensive botanical treatment in an Electronic format".National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.Retrieved18 May2018.
  7. ^Index Herbariorum code for the National Herbarium of New South WalesRetrieved 24 July 2019.
  8. ^"Herbarium".Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.Retrieved7 February2017.
  9. ^"Encyclopedia of Australian Science: National Herbarium of New South Wales".Retrieved18 May2018.
  10. ^"BOTANICAL MUSEUM AND NATIONAL HERBARIUM".The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser.Vol. LXXI, no. 2123. New South Wales, Australia. 16 March 1901. p. 662.Retrieved7 February2017– via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^"BOTANICAL MUSEUM AND HERBARIUM".Evening News.No. 10, 532. New South Wales, Australia. 12 March 1901. p. 7.Retrieved7 February2017– via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^National Herbarium of New South Wales; Royal Botanic Gardens (Sydney, N.S.W.) (1992),The National Herbarium of New South Wales,Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney,retrieved7 February2017
  13. ^ab"Sydney Architecture Images – The Royal Botanic Gardens".www.sydneyarchitecture.com.Retrieved7 February2017.
  14. ^"Botanic Gardens, Anderson Building".Sydney – City and Suburbs.3 December 2014.Retrieved7 February2017.
  15. ^Wilson, Karen (2012).'Another Significant Anniversary' in "The Gardens", Summer 2012–2013.
  16. ^"Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain | NSW Environment & Heritage".NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.Retrieved8 April2017.
  17. ^"$60 million win for NSW's vital botanic sciences".The Royal Botanic Gardens.Retrieved23 May2019.
  18. ^"National Herbarium of New South Wales".Resources of Australian Herbaria.Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria.Retrieved6 February2017.
  19. ^Stacey, Robyn;Hay, Ashley(2004),Herbarium,Cambridge University Press,ISBN978-0-521-84277-8
  20. ^Reid, Georgina (12 November 2014)."$100 Million Dollars Worth of Plants - The Planthunter".The Planthunter.Retrieved7 February2017.
  21. ^"About AVH".Australia's Virtual Herbarium.Retrieved8 April2017.
  22. ^"Global Plants on JSTOR".plants.jstor.org.Retrieved7 February2017.
  23. ^"National Herbarium of New South Wales".The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.Retrieved23 May2019.
  24. ^Lesley Elkan and Catherine Wardrop (2014)."Margaret Flockton at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney".Dictionary of Sydney.Dictionary of Sydney Trust.Retrieved8 April2017.
  25. ^"Royal Botanic Gardens".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved6 February2017.
  26. ^National Herbarium and Botanical Museum (New South Wales) (1900),Telopea,Government printer,ISSN0312-9764
  27. ^Harden, G.J (ed) 1990–2002.Flora of New South Wales, Vol 1-Vol 4.NSW University Press. 1990.ISBN9780868401560.
  28. ^"Library".The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.Retrieved6 February2017.
  29. ^"IK iFacts – Daniel Solander – Linnaeus Apostle".www.ikfoundation.org.Retrieved6 February2017.
  30. ^Duyker, Edward (1998),Nature's argonaut: Daniel Solander 1733–1782: naturalist and voyager with Cook and Banks,Miegunyah Press,ISBN978-0-522-84720-8
  31. ^Rauschenberg, Roy Anthony; American Philosophical Society (1968),Daniel Carl Solander, naturalist on the 'Endeavour',American Philosophical Society,retrieved6 February2017
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33°52′00″S151°13′05″E/ 33.866575°S 151.217923°E/-33.866575; 151.217923