herbarium

American  

[hur-bair-ee-uhm, ur-] / hɜrˈbɛər i əm, ɜr- /

noun

• herbariums,
  plural
• herbaria
  plural

1. a collection of dried plants systematically arranged.

2. a room or building in which such a collection is kept.

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herbarium British  

/ hɜːˈbɛərɪəm /

noun

1. a collection of dried plants that are mounted and classified systematically

2. a building, room, etc, in which such a collection is kept

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• herbarial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• herbaria
  plural
• herbariums
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of herbarium

1770–80; < Late Latin, equivalent to Latin herb ( a ) herb, green vegetation + -ārium -arium

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Explanation

A herbarium is a collection of preserved plants. Think of it as a library of herbs. A herbarium can be something as simple as that book of pressed flowers you made at summer camp, or as complex as a building that holds case after case of flowers soaked in formaldehyde, dried moss stored in archival quality envelopes, and cones from conifers organized in boxes. Find these larger collections at universities, botanical gardens, and natural history museums.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

herbarium herbaria herbariums

The herbarium at RAU, not only includes specimens from 1797, but many picked from in and around the Gloucestershire area.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

Rousseau’s unfinished, unstructured “Reveries” resembles the herbarium in which he gathered a botanical record of his daily walks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026

“Duke’s decision to forgo responsibility of their herbarium specimens sets a terrible precedent,” the Natural Science Collections Alliance wrote in a letter to the university last Friday.

From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2024

UC has documented thousands of native and nonnative plant specimens at Spring Grove in surveys by people such as Kate Nordyke, the cemetery's former herbarium specialist.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 1, 2023

The scientists and librarians still collect their keys in the mornings, still study their ancient elephants’ teeth, their exotic jellyfish, their herbarium sheets.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

This intensive fieldwork resulted in over a thousand new specimens deposited at the National Herbarium of Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature and other herbaria worldwide.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2024

Studies of animal and plant specimens in museum and herbaria collections can uncover some of these dark extinctions.

From Salon ● May 31, 2023

“There are undoubtedly more undescribed extinct species sitting in herbaria, collected 100 years ago.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2020

Botanists have been identifying and naming plants collected there since the 17th century, with samples stored in herbaria around the world.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2020

There are large herbaria at the British Museum and at the Royal Gardens, Kew, and smaller collections at the botanical institutions at the principal British universities.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 3 "Helmont, Jean" to "Hernosand" by Various

The world’s herbariums contain a vast number of varieties that have yet to be genetically tested.

From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2018

Mr. Muñoz-Rodríguez and his colleagues visited museums and herbariums around the world to take samples of sweet potato varieties and wild relatives.

From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2018

Here are botanists who love the growing things in the fields and woods better than the specimens in their herbariums.

From The Gentle Reader by Samuel McChord Crothers

Tell us all about flowers and plants for herbariums.

From Harper's Round Table, May 21, 1895 by Various

Hence the advantage of being able to see plants at pleasure, by forming dried collections of them, in what are called herbariums.

From Flowers and Flower-Gardens With an Appendix of Practical Instructions and Useful Information Respecting the Anglo-Indian Flower-Garden by David Lester Richardson

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