National Herbarium
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Web: http://www.aau.edu.et/
Sebsebe Demissew
Email: sebsebed@bio.aau.edu.et
The National Herbarium was established in 1959 and began with a base of 6000 specimens collected by its first administrator, Dr. H. F. Mooney. Since its founding, the herbarium has always been a part of Addis Ababa University's Department of Biology. By 1980, the herbarium contained approximately 16 000 specimens. In that year, the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC) started supporting the Ethiopian Flora Project, and the Department of Botany's research agenda became firmly established. As a result, the number of collections has steadily increased and there are now more than 70 000 collections housed in the National Herbarium, including approximately 400 type specimens from Ethiopia and Eritrea.
At present, the herbarium is engaged in several major national projects These include investigation and study of:
- The flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Landscape ecology in central Ethiopia
- Rehabilitation of degraded areas in northern and central Ethiopia, Tigray, and the Southern Ethiopian Peoples' Administrative Region (SEPRA)
- Forest ecology of the dry mountain forests of the plateau
- Documentation of aromatic plants in Ethiopia