What is a Herbarium

A herbarium is a collection of dried and stored plant specimens used for identification and reference purposes. Each specimen verifies the existence of an individual plant at a particular place and time.

Plant specimens are pressed and dried so that they retain their distinguishing characteristics which are used to identify them. The collection of specimens within a herbarium is a sample of the distribution and variation of a plant species. The Janet Cosh Herbarium has 10,000 specimens from the Illawarra and Southern Highlands region. Each State has a major herbarium. The NSW Herbarium has over 1 million specimens.

A herbarium also has other resources which are used to support research including reference books, journals, maps, trained staff and a database.

Herbarium records are the basis for our knowledge of plant distribution which is essential for the protection and preservation of plants and plant communities.

Maintaining the collection is a constant job of adding to the collection, identifying and incorporating new specimens, updating nomenclatural changes, protection against insect attack and providing botanical data. Scientists who undertake research on a plant species or community often lodge voucher specimens with a herbarium for future reference.