Specimens from the fern herbarium including examples of Dipteris, Pityrogramma and Matonia
The Museum houses one of the most important collections of ferns and other seed-free vascular plants in the world, with around 350,000 specimens.
Strengths
The collections cover global fern diversity and have particular geographical strengths in:
- Europe and the British Isles
- Malesia
- South Asia
- Tropical America
- Macaronesia
The collections span the seventeenth century to the present day. They are especially valuable due to their richness in types, historical collections and cytological vouchers.
Our fern type specimens are estimated to exceed 7,000, representing around 20 per cent of published fern names.
Looking for a specimen?
The fern collection is being digitised
Any Questions?
If you would like to use any specimens for research, please get in touch.
Senior curator
Specimens
350,000
Type specimens
7,000
Specimens
Extant ferns 255,000
Lycophytes 25,000
Type specimens
Extant ferns 6,600
Lycophytes 400
Material type
Herbarium sheets 275,000
Spirit collection 1,000
Microscope preparations 400
Unicorporated collections 60,000
Important collections
- Carl Christensen's Herbarium
- John Smith's Herbarium
- A.H.G. Alston
- Clive Jermy
- Trevor Walker
- Christopher Fraser-Jenkins
- Irene Manton
- Irene Manton's research students, including Anne Sleep and Mary Gibby
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John Smith herbarium specimen of Gleichenia dicarpa
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Carl Christensen herbarium specimen of Blotiella glabra from Africa
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Close-up of a Dryopteris dilatata herbarium specimen
Collections on the move
Access to some collections will be affected as we prepare for the move to our new collections, science and digitisation centre.
Accessing the collections
Scientists and collections management specialists can visit the collections and borrow specimens for research.
Collections management
Our duty is to provide a safe and secure environment for all of our collections.