The RHS Herbarium is in the process of being databased so that the information is more easily accessible to members and the public. An initial study between 2004-2006 allowed all the specimens in the main herbarium to be catalogued to a basic level. This recorded the name, the date it was collected and whether the plant was from the wild or cultivation.
The database currently contains records for more than 60,000 herbarium specimens and almost 40,000 slides, photographs and paintings.
Search the specimen database here
Together these 100,000 specimens represent more than 40,000 taxa.
Download a complete list of taxa here (Adobe Acrobat pdf)
A number of collections not as yet incorporated into the main herbarium are in the process of being databased, such as the Hanbury Herbarium.
About the database
The specimen data are captured using BG-Base, and are part of the same horticultural database that maintains the living collections and RHS Plant Finder. This ensures that the names used for the taxa are those currently accepted by the RHS Plant Finder and that the names of garden collections and the specimens made from them are in agreement.
At 7 January 2009 the specimen database for RHS Herbarium consisted of:
- Records: 104,502
- Herbarium specimens: 64,669 (cultivated: 39,789)
- Photographs: 35,979
- Paintings: 3,311
- Taxa: 40,188