Herbario Universidade de São Paulo
Instituto de Biociências
Departamento de Botânica, Herbário
Rua do Matão, 277,
05508-090, São Paulo, SP
Brazil
Fax: (55) (11) 3091-7547
Web: http://www.ib.usp.br/en/about-2/facilities.html
Prof. Dr. José Rubens Pirani, Herbarium Curator
Email: pirani@usp.br
Profa. Dra. Lúcia G. Lohmann , LAPI Coordinator
Email: llohmann@usp.br
Fabiana Begale, Herbarium Technician
Email: ffbegale@gmail.com
The Herbarium of the Department of Botany of the University of São Paulo was funded in 1932 by Prof. Wilson Hoehne. The whole collection includes approximately 170 000 specimens, 12% of which are Pteridophyta, 2% are Seed Plants and 84% are Flowering Plants.
The herbarium includes the best collection of representatives of the vegetation of the Espinhaço Range in Brazil (states of Minas Gerais and Bahia). This region includes several mountain ranges and is particularly rich in dry vegetations such as rocky outcrops and cerrados. It also includes some of the largest collections in the world for selected plant families such as Velloziaceae, Eriocaulaceae, and Xyridaceae, key plant families on the Espinhaço Range formation.
Overall, the herbarium includes approximately 600 type materials housed in specialized cupboards. Even though the University of São Paulo includes a small number of types relative to other Institutions, the types housed within the Herbarium correspond to holotypes from the Espinhaço Range, several of which do not have any isotypes housed anywhere else. Since the Espinhaço Range is a very diverse, ecologically important endangered habitat, these types are of critical importance to a better understanding of the Neotropical Flora. In addition, the region includes an incredibly high level of endemism with several plants of the region not being found anywhere else. These species and specimens are of critical importance to plant systematics as a whole.