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Search all Oxford databases

 

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Databases to specific collections are shown below:

Jacob Bobart the Younger's Hortus Siccus

Dillenius's Historia Muscorum

Charlotte Trower's watercolour collection

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For further information, contact Stephen Harris, Curator of the Oxford University Herbaria.

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The Oxford Plant Systematics and Diversity research group, based within the Oxford University Herbaria, combines comprehensive research in plant systematics with a broad range of applied biodiversity activities. The group's overall goal is to understand plant diversity and to provide innovative and practical solutions assisting with diversity analysis and documentation.

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Welcome to the Oxford University Herbaria

Herbaria are central to the initiatives to catalogue plant life on Earth, the debate about the future of global plant biodiversity and its conservation and understanding plant evolution. Oxford University Herbaria has been concerned with these issues, in various guises, for nearly four centuries. Established in 1621, the Herbaria had its roots in the Oxford Physic Garden, and is the oldest herbarium in the United Kingdom and the fourth oldest such collection in the world. However, the Herbaria quickly moved away from being merely a collection of dried medicinal plants to focusing on the understanding of global patterns of plant variation and the establishment of plant classification systems.

The Fielding-Druce and Daubeny herbaria and the xylarium, collectively known as the Oxford University Herbaria, currently contain 800,000-1,000,000 botanical specimens from across all taxonomic groups and geographic regions. The collections contain at least 25,000 types.

The Daubeny Herbarium (FHO)

The Daubeny Herbarium has been collected together over the last century and is composed primarily of specimens from Central and South America, South-East Asia and especially Tropical Africa. As a former forest herbarium, the collection is biased towards woody species, particularly groups such as the Leguminosae, Meliaceae and Pinaceae. There are large collections of spirit-preserved and dried fruits associated with FHO.

The xylarium comprises c. 25,000 wood block specimens and microscope slides of wood sections.

Fielding-Druce Herbarium (OXF)

The historic herbaria in the Fielding-Druce herbarium are some of the oldest collections in the United Kingdom. Four of the more significant historic herbaria are those of Robert Morison (1620-83), William Sherard (1659-1728), Johannus Dillenius (1684-1747) and John Sibthorp (1758-96). At the beginning of the 18th century, Hans Sloane conceded that Sherard's herbarium was the largest and most important herbarium in the world. Sherard corresponded and shared specimens with all of the significant European botanists of the late-17th and early-18th centuries. This collection was studied in 1736 by Carolus Linnaeus, when Dillenius was in charge. Dillenius was a significant botanist in his own right through his work on algae, lichens and mosses. Sibthorp's herbarium comprises the specimens he collected during his two pioneering botanical tours of the eastern Mediterranean (1786-1787; 1794-95). It is these specimens that were used in the preparation of Flora Graeca. Other early botanical treasures include the herbarium of Gregorio a Reggio (dated 1606; probably the oldest herbarium in the United Kingdom), the du Bois herbarium (c. 1698-1724) and the Bobartian herbaria (c. 1640-1719).

The Fielding Herbarium was bequeathed to the University by Henry Fielding (1805-51); it contains all the non-British specimens collected since 1796. Fielding purchased specimens from many of the most important botanical figures of his day.

The Druce herbarium contains all British flowering plants collected after 1796. Most specimens (c. 200,000 specimens) come from the herbarium of George Druce (1850-1932). This is one of the country's most significant herbaria of British plants, especially in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

A detailed history of the Fielding-Druce Herbarium is presented in: H. N. Clokie (1964) An account of the Herbaria of the Department of Botany in the University of Oxford. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Our research work

Research associated with the Herbaria includes monography and botanical survey, together with theoretical and empirical work on systematic methods, phylogenetics and macroevolution.

Contacts

Curator: Dr Stephen Harris (stephen.harris@plants.ox.ac.uk)

Herbarium manager: Serena Marner (serena.marner@plants.ox.ac.uk)