Collection management and curation
Dried specimen of Hydrangea villosa 'hidcote', from the Museum's herbarium
The Natural History Museum holds both seed plant, seed and pollen collections.
Seed plant collections
The seed plant collections consist of:
- herbarium specimens - pressed and dried plants, or parts of plants, mounted on stiff archival-quality paper with associated field data
- cross-referenced ancillary collections - such as dried fruits and material preserved in spirit
Seed collections
The seed collection consist of two series:
- Approximately 10,600 packets of seeds.
- A collection made by R. Meinertzhagen (1878-1967) consisting of some 4,600 gatherings housed in glass-topped boxes.
Unincorporated specimens
The collections also include specimens that are unincorporated into main collections (backlogs). Built up over many years, these total around 300,000 specimens.
Curators are currently working to improve the storage standards and accessibility of these collections.
Online collections
As part of a major international project to database and image type specimens, our seed plant type specimens are being databased and scanned. These digital images will be available online.
Pollen and spore collections
There is also an outstanding palynological slide collection. All major vascular plant groups are represented, with a particular focus on angiosperms and pteridophytes of Quaternary importance.