Latest Virtual herbarium Stories

The 149-year-old Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, one of the world's largest botanical collections, has received its 6 millionth herbarium specimen. A herbarium is essentially a "library" of plant specimens. The garden's herbarium includes about 5.5 million vascular plants -- flowering plants, ferns and conifers -- and 500,000 bryophytes, mosses, liverworts and hornworts. "The importance of these 'libraries' of plants cannot be overstated," said the garden's vice president of Science...