Herbaria

Overview

Herbaria are collections of prepared and conserved plants and fungi documenting the biodiversity of organisms and making it available for investigations. In 1990 the Herbaria of ETH Zurich were combined with the Herbarium of the University of Zurich, and since then they are managed by both institutions. The United Herbaria Z+ZT include about 3.8 Mio specimens and thus belong to the 15 biggest herbaria of the world. The Mycological collection (fungi in a broader sense) is located at ETH, the Plant collection in the Botanical Garden of the university.

Holdings

• Approximately 2.4 million vascular plants
• Approximately 0.4 million bryophytes
• Approximately 1 million fungi
• Approximately 20,000 algae
• Approximately 15,000 type specimens
• Geographic scope: flora of Switzerland and Central Europe, New Caledonia and Southern Africa; fungi of Central Europe and the southern hemisphere
• Important collections: vascular plants of the genera Alchemilla, Potentilla, Rosa and Rubus, bryophytes of the genus Bryum, basidiomycetes (macromycetes, rust fungi), ascomycetes, glomeromycota

Relevance for Research and Public

The collections document plant and fungal diversity in space and time, which are used for research questions in natural as well as cultural history. They represent an irreplaceable source of information for biodiversity research such as federal or cantonal monitoring projects. Specimens are sent out on loan for systematic, morphological and genetic studies to academic institutions worldwide.

Current activities and projects

• The vascular plant herbarium aims at developing sustainable digitisation and evaluation strategies with the aid of citizen scientists in conjunction with an internet-based collection and digital asset management system. Recent projects include the digitisation of the entire Brassicaceae and Gentianaceae collection, the flora of canton of Zurich and Valais, the diatom collection of Friedrich Meister, as well as important holdings from New Caledonia and South Africa (including Angola). Collections kept separately so far are inventoried and integrated in the main collections.
• The bryophyte herbarium is playing an instrumental role in the project external page "Bryophyte Flora of Switzerland" and is closely collaborating with the external page external page National Data and Information Centre on Swiss Bryophytes, which promotes mapping of bryophytes in Switzerland and is the competence center for bryophyte conservation.
• The mycological collection has focused past research and digitisation efforts on its significant holdings of plant pathogenic fungi of which the Fungarium keeps approximately 100’000 specimens and 2’500 types. Current research and digitisation focus on the important type holdings of the Fungarium across all fungal groups, with a specific focus on conservation relevant macromycetes and alpine taxa.

Online databases

• Approximately 390,000 specimens of vascular plants (including all type specimens) and 187,000 bryophyte specimens are currently available in digital form via a self-hosted external page web portal and external page GBIF .
• Moreover, approx. 238,000 bryophyte specimens are available on the portal of the external page National Record Centre of Swiss Bryophytes .
• The 125,000 digitised specimens of the mycological collection are accessible on NAHIMA, the database of the natural history collections of the ETH Zurich and partially on external page GBIF.

Contact

Plant Collection

United Herbaria Z+ZT
University of Zurich
Zollikerstrasse 107
8008 Zurich  

UZH Curator:  external page PD. Dr. Reto Nyffeler

ETH Curator:  Dr. Alessia Guggisberg