National Museum of Nature and Science Herbarium

The Department of Botany is located in the Tsukuba Area, along with the Tsukuba Botanical Garden (open to the public), and the herbarium that stores more than 1.5 million specimens for use by researchers in Japan and from overseas. The specimens are stored in order of taxonomical groups. The herbarium for vascular plants has approximately 900,000 pressed and mounted specimens of flowering plants and ferns, while the herbarium for mosses stores approximately 200,000 specimens. Large algae account for approximately 35,000 of the total number of specimens. About 4,700 specimens of microalgae from different parts of the world are mostly stored with different varieties immersed together in a liquid medium. Approximately 210,000 specimens of fungi, 150,000 specimens of lichens, and 57,000 slime mold specimens are also stored in the herbarium. The Department of Botany is creating an electronic database to further enable appropriate management of plant specimens and promote their enhanced utilization.