The herbarium of the Botanische Staatssammlung München (herbarium acronym: M) comprises about 3 million dried specimens of plants and fungi and is systematically arranged. Associated are collections of pickled flowers, microscope slide collections, illustrations of plants and fungi, and dried fruits and seeds. The collections are worldwide in scope, but with particular strengths in the flora of Bavaria and the Alps, the vascular plants of Brazil, Chile, Middle Asia and parts of Africa, as well as in lichens and fungi. The herbarium grows at an average rate of 16,000 specimens a year and is estimated to house about 25% of the known species of the world.
The collections are available for study after prior arrangement with the curators. Members of the curatorial staff will provide a brief introduction about how to use the collections.
| Algae | approx. 150,000 specimens
Curator: Dagmar Triebel |
| Fungi | approx. 350,000 specimens
Curator: Dagmar Triebel |
| Lichens | approx. 300,000 specimens
Curator: Andreas Beck |
| Bryophytes | approx. 350,000 specimens
Curator: Andreas Beck |
| Vascular plants | approx. 1,800,000 specimens
Curators: Hans-Joachim Esser, Franz Schuhwerk |
Around 117,000 data records referring to herbarium specimens, microscope slides and water colours are online accessible (see Collections Online). A compilation of the collections and an index of the collectors from 1813 to 1988 is given by HERTEL & SCHREIBER 1988 (see online version, extended). Short portrayals of collectors are presented under Collectors Online.
H. Hertel, Lecideaceae Exsiccatae
V. John, Lichenes Anatolici Exsiccati
F. Schuhwerk, Cormophyta Exsiccata
D. Triebel, Microfungi Exsiccati
Loans of herbarium specimens are granted following standard regulations. For loan management concerning vascular plants we use the Oracle-based database system SysTax.