Australian National Herbarium
Australian National Herbarium
G.P.O. Box 1600
Canberra, A.C.T. 2601
Australia
Brendan Lepschi, Curator
Email: brendan.lepschi@csiro.au
The Australian National Herbarium arose from the amalgamation over the years of several herbaria managed by the Commonwealth Government. These included several CSIRO herbaria, the Forest Research Institute Eucalypt Collection, the Forest Research Institute's Atherton Rainforest Collection, and the Australian National Botanic Gardens Herbarium. The CSIRO's core collection, previously known as 'Herbarium Australiense', was renamed 'Australian National Herbarium' in 1984.
Access to the collections of the Australian National Herbarium is restricted – it is not a public facility, and access is usually only available to researchers from other institutions. Community groups, clubs and societies, or educational institutions can be given a guided tour of the facilities by arrangement.
A Public Reference Herbarium is available 5 days a week in the Botanical Resource Centre, near the Cafe at the Australian National Botanic Gardens. The specimens that you will see here are duplicates of those in the main collection. They are mounted on cardboard sheets, but smaller than the main collection and in plastic sleeves to protect them during handling. The range of species included in the Public Reference Herbarium is restricted to those of south eastern Australia.
The total Australian National Herbarium collection (Canberra [CANB] and Cairns [CNS]) comprises almost 1.2 million specimens, including about 8215 type specimens
Particularly comprehensive collections are held for Australasian bryophytes and lichens, Myrtaceae (especially Eucalyptus and Melaleuca-Callistemon), Orchidaceae, Sapindaceae, Lauraceae, Portulacaceae and some sections of Poaceae, Rutaceae, Proteaceae and Fabaceae.
A strong representation of New Guinean material derives from past CSIRO involvement in that area and a comprehensive specialist collection of tropical Australian rain forest species that was developed at Atherton (>100 000 collections), is now on loan to the Australian Tropical Herbarium in Cairns (CNS).