National Herbarium of The Netherlands
The National Herbarium of The Netherlands (NHN) was established in 1999 and consists of three branches: Leiden, Utrecht, and Wageningen. The Universiteit Leiden branch (1829) houses about 4.1 million plant specimens, with an emphasis on the flora of Europe, especially the Netherlands, and the flora of Southeast Asia. The collections of the Utrecht University branch (1816) comprises over 800 000 specimens, mainly from tropical America (the Neotropics). The majority of the collections of the Wageningen University branch (1896), about 800 000 specimens, originate from Central and West Tropical Africa. The herbarium also contains cultivated plants, both food plants and ornamentals. All three branches have extensive spirit and wood sample collections.
Each branch of the NHN also includes a library, unique resources covering botanical and mycological literature from the 16th century to the present. During the past 10 years, the collection data have been entered into a database (BRAHMS software), now comprising more than 820 000 entries. The database supports curational tasks and is also a powerful research tool that can be used for many purposes, for example, biodiversity assessments. The complete online database of the National Herbarium of The Netherlands, including digital images of all type collections, is available on the Internet at http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/home/ and soon will be available through GBIF.