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The Botany Department has a collection of some 35,000 vascular plant specimens and some 110,000 cryptogamic plant specimens.

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The Botanical Museum (and Library) holds collections of c. 2,325,000 specimens separated into 9 different herbaria:

• The General Herbarium of Vascular Plants (1,155,000 specimens) consists of collections from all over the world and from almost all families. It is estimated that 11,300 of the worlds known 14,000 genera are represented. It holds an estimated 25,000 type-specimens under registration. The herbarium is especially rich in material from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greece, Spain, Macaronesia, Africa, SE-Asia, Mexico, W.-Indies, Central America and South America.
• The Herbarium of Danish Vascular Plants (230,000 specimens) consists of collections from all parts of Denmark from the 18th century up to now. It includes at least 1500 species and is the largest collection of Danish plants. Many of the specimens depicted in Flora Danica are kept in this collection. Additionally, the herbarium comprises the file of the Topographical-Botanical Investigation of Denmark as well as the unpublished sources of the Botanical Locality Register.
• The Herbarium of Greenlandic Vascular Plants (174,000 specimens) consists of collections from all parts of Greenland from the 17th century up to now. It includes about 515 species and is the largest collection of Greenlandic plants in the world.
• The Herbarium of Bryophytes (314,000 specimens) consists of collections of all taxonomical groups and from all parts of the world. It holds the largest collections of Danish (c. 700 species) and Greenlandic (c. 600 species) bryophytes.
• The Herbarium of Algae (133,000 specimens) consists of collections of all taxonomical groups of algae from all parts of the world. It holds the largest collections of Danish algae, and has important collections from Greenland, Iceland, the Canary Islands, the Faroe Islands, the West Indies and Scnadinavia.
• The Herbarium of Fungi (139,000 specimens) consists of non-lichenized fungi from all taxonomical groups and from all parts of the world. It holds the largest collections of Danish (c. 5000 species) and Greenlandic (c. 1500 species) fungi.
• The Herbarium of Lichens (220,000) consists of lichenized fungi from all taxonomical groups and from all over the world. It holds the largest collections of Danish (c. 900 species) and Greenlandic (c. 950 species) lichens.
• The Collection of Useful Plants (1,000 pieces) is maintained for exhibition purposes. And finally,
• The Collection of Wood Samples (500 samples) is a reference collection.

An extensive online searchable Botanical Specimen Database is also available.
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The Museum hosts a large floristic archive, consisting mainly of the primary material and floristic notes made mainly in the eastern Fennoscandia by Finnish botanists. The records of the Finnish and NW Russian vascular plants have partly been entered into the Museum's floristic database.The copies of the forms used in examining the habitats of the threatened vascular plants of Finland are also partly preserved in this archive. There are also various cardfiles on the collections, correspondance and various papers on certain botanists of the past.

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Botany - The Botanical Museum has two herbaria that were created in the pre-Linnaean period, that is before the famous Swedish scientist, Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) established definite rules for classifying and defining plants in 1753. These are the Cesalpino Herbarium, one of the world's first herbaria, prepared in 1563, and the Micheli-Targioni Herbarium, that dates from the early XVIII century.

The Botanical Garden has several permanent exhibits involving a number of thematic routes such as The Pteridophytes, Succulent Plants, Carnivorous Plants, Medicinal plants, Tropical Greenhouse, Bromeliad Greenhouse, The Cycads, and the Orchids.

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The Botany Collection is a well documented collection of plants from the whole of southern Limburg between 1890 and 1943 and ranks amongst the most important regional herbariums in The Netherlands. On the basis of this herbarium detailed studies into the flora and vegetation at the start of this century could be carried out. The Herbarium consists of c. 20,000 paper covers with a total of some 60,000 specimens. Of the smaller herbariums are the collections of pharmacist herbariums.

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The Botanical Garden contains some 1800 different plants arranged according to family and genus. Here one can find some 300 medicinal plans (the Economic Garden), some 1450 species of plants covering the mountain flora of Norway and of other mountainous areas such as Caucasia (the Rock Garden). A permanent exhibition of "botanical art" (the Dagny Tande Lid) is also available to the public.

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The Botany is represented here through a herbarium and an agricultural Institute as follows:

• Selmar Schonland Herbarium (plants) - the herbarium houses just under 200 000 plant specimens, making it the 4th largest herbarium in South Africa and the 9th largest on the whole African continent. Taxonomic coverage is broad, and although the majority of specimens are Angiosperms, the herbarium has a very large collection of algae. A computer database of botanical data and specimen records is being developed, and is available online to any computer registered user through the Rhodes University computer network system but is not yet available to outside on-line users.
• Range and Forage Institute (Agricultural Research Council)
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The Botany is extensively represented here through the following principal areas:

• The Department of Phanerogamic Botany - The collection comprise of some four (4) million specimens making this collection one of the largest in the world.The collection is divided into three (3) major herbaria as follows:
  
  
  • The Nordic herbarium has more than 1.5 milion specimens from the Nordic countries gathered during the 250 years that have passed since the late 18th century. There is also a number of specimens preserved in alcohol which is available in a database - The botanical collections in alcohol database. Some Separate Collections of The Nordic herbarium are also available in databases.
    
    
  • The Regnellian herbarium keeps material from South and Central America being one of the largest of its kind. The herbarium holds some 400.000 specimens, the type material comprising of some 25.000 specimens. Part of this material has been computerized and made available in the botanical type collection database. A separate Ecuador herbarium exist with some35.000 specimens, and another herbarium -the Historical Swartz herbarium is also there with some additional 6.000 specimens.
    
    
  • The General herbarium houses about one million ( 1.000.000) plant specimens from all other parts of the world not covered in their specialized herbariums. Some parts of the General herbarium have been computerized and are available in searchable databases. All known typematerial in the General herbarium has been included in the botanical type collection, a database comprising about 18.000 records, which also include some type material from the Regnellian herbarium. The gymnosperm collection which comprise some 7500 specimens, is available in the Gymnosperm collection database. The General herbarium has some 4000 specimens material preserved in alcohol and available in their Botanical collections in alcohol databse.
    
    
• The Historical Botanical Collections are divided int two (2) sections:
  • the Phanerogamic botany (with the Linnean herbarium, Celsius' Flora Uplandica, Münchenberg's Herbarium vivum, and The Swartz herbarium); and
  • Cryptogamic botany (with Linnaeus' cryptogams, Erik Acharius' lichen types, and Olof Swartz' lichen types)
    
    
• The Department of Cryptogamic Botany - The cryptogamic collections of the Swedish Museum of Natural History consist of more than two (2) million specimens including many type specimens. Part of the collections is registered in databases. These collections are divided into these parts:
  • Fungi (332 000 specimens)
  • Myxomycetes (2 700 specimens)
  • Lichens (391 000 specimens)
  • Algae (>76 000 specimens)
  • Bryophytes (1 215 000 specimens)
  • Pteridophytes (160 000 specimens)
  • Galls (1 400 specimens), and
  • Bacteria (66 specimens)
    
     
• The Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) - deals with the monitoring of contaminants in the Swedish environment and fauna. Studies of biological diversity (through DNA studies) and the effects of noxious substances on threatened animal species are the primary areas of interest. The ESB has one of the oldest and largest collections of environmental specimens in Sweden.
  
  
• The Pollen Collection of special interest are in the following research areas:
  • Systematic Botany
  • Aeropalynology
  • Forensic palynology
  • Melittopalynology and
  • Quaternal geology

The pollen material is preserved in specially made slides. The International slide collection is one of the internationally most significant collections. It contains more than 25000 slide collections of different plant families. Also a Scandinavian and a Historical collection are part of this pollen material.

In addition, there is a Palynological Laboratory.
The Lab studies the development, ultrastructure, histochemistry and morphology of pollen grains and spores, with special reference to taxonomy, as well as the presence and distribution of pollen and spores in the air. Pollen and spore service with special emphasis on the allergenic species is provided daily to the public.

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The Botany Department contains one of the largest collection of plant specimens in the world (which are housed in the Herbarium) with nearly two million dried, pressed plants, some collected more than two hundred years ago.

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