Lichen herbaria
The lichen Xanthoria aureola
The British and foreign lichen herbaria are the main lichen collections at the Natural History Museum. A Parasymbiont Herbarium and Myxomycetes Herbarium are also curated in the lichen section.
British Lichen Herbarium
This contains British and Irish lichen collections.
British Herbarium taxa list Excel (123.0 KB)
Foreign Lichen Herbarium
This contains lichens from all other parts of the world, including extensive collections from the southern hemisphere and especially Antarctic areas, Australia, Chile and New Zealand.
Foreign herbarium taxa list Excel (712.5 KB)
Parasymbiont Herbarium
This is a separate collection of fungi growing on lichens - lichenicolous fungi.
Myxomycetes Herbarium
A collection of slime moulds (Myxomycetes) is curated in the lichen section, although these protists are not related to fungi.
Not Incorporated Collections
Apart from the main collections we have approximately 100,000-150,000 specimens in Not Incorporated Collections. These collections are mainly arranged by collectors and geographic origin.
Only parts of these collections are accessible so far but we are continuously increasing their availability to the scientific community.
Historic collections
Some historic lichen collections of outstanding importance are kept separately from the main collections, the most important being the Acharius Herbarium.