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

Etymology

Origin of herbarium

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

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

The team instead applied new genomic methods that allow ready sequencing of nuclear DNA from herbarium specimens, they reported on 24 April in Nature.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 24, 2024

“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

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

New techniques that allow scientists to key into specific regions of DNA and stitch together fragments have opened the door to sequencing herbaria samples—and made the new study possible.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 23, 2024

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

Meanwhile, Cheek said he's publishing more and more new plant species from undescribed herbaria specimens that are likely already extinct in the wild.

From Salon ● May 31, 2023

Many contributed to herbaria, the collections of preserved plants that form the cornerstone of botanical study, while others were skilled botanical artists.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2021

Species are not only the subject-material of herbaria and collections, but they are living entities, and their life-history and life-conditions command a gradually increasing interest.

From Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation by Vries, Hugo de

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

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

From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2018

In Europe the Boehmeria tenacissima is but found in botanical gardens, or herbariums, and as yet not the slightest use is made of it for industrial purposes.

From Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Scherzer, Karl Ritter von

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 Richardson, David Lester

Tell us all about flowers and plants for herbariums.

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