Image

The Algal Collection of the U.S. National Herbarium is represented by over 224,000 accessioned and inventoried herbarium specimens preserved on herbarium sheets, microscope slides or liquid preparations. The collection is comprised of marine, estuarine, freshwater, terrestrial (including cave) and airborne algae and is worldwide in origin, with strong representation of tropical and subtropical marine algae. Major holdings include the following regions: Gulf of California, Pacific Mexico, southern and central California and the Channel Islands, the Galapagos Islands, Aldabra Atoll, and the Caribbean (especially Florida, Belize, Bahamas and Panama). The collection can be queried in the Botany Collections Search Page.
Research visitation, collection-based inquiries and loan requests can be made to collections manager.
*This number does not include approximately 101,000 specimens recently acquired from the collections of Dr. Isabella A. Abbott, Dr. Walter Adey (internal SI transfer of crustose coralline algae), Dr. Michael Neushul, Dr. Sylvia Earle and duplicate collections from the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Hawaii.