Resources of Australian Herbaria

HERBARIUM CODE:

MEL

CITES number:

AU026

HERBARIUM NAME:

National Herbarium of Victoria

DEPARTMENT / ORGANISATION:

Royal Botanic Gardens

CONTACT DETAILS
Street Address:

Royal Botanic Gardens, Birdwood Avenue

Postal Address:

Private Bag 2000
Birdwood Avenue
South Yarra

City:

Melbourne

State:

Victoria

Postcode:

3141

Telephone:

(03) 9252 2300

Facsimile:

(03) 9252 2350

Email:

first name.followed by last name@rbg.vic.gov.au

Location:

Corner of Birdwood Avenue and Dallas Brooks Drive (off Domain Rd) c. 2.5kms SE of Central Business District.

AUTHORITY/STATUS:

Statutory Body responsible through the Royal Botanic Gardens Board to the Minister for Conservation and Land Management.

ACCESS:

Main collections by appointment (usually 9:30 am to 4:30 pm on weekdays only)
Victorian Reference Set: Weekdays 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.

ASSOCIATED LIVING COLLECTION:

Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne; Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne.

FOUNDATION:

Dr F.J.H. Mueller was appointed by Charles La Trobe as Victoria’s first Government Botanist on 26 January 1853, the Botanic Gardens having been founded in 1846.The present building was built in 1934 with funds provided by Sir Macpherson Robertson to mark the Centenary of Victoria. An extension was added in 1988 with Bicentenary funding.

FUNCTIONS:

The National Herbarium of Victoria provides a focus for plant taxonomic and systematic studies in Victoria and provides a rich resource for botanical information. The collection supports the work of members of staff, staff and research students at local tertiary institutions, and researchers nationally and internationally. The collection contains vouchers authenticating the nomenclature of many of the living collections in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne and Cranbourne.

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE:

60% of the collection is Australian; 40% is non-Australian.

TAXONOMIC SCOPE:

All major plant groups and fungi and algae are represented.

NUMBER OF SPECIMENS:

Total

Types

Angiosperms

908,486

19,130

Dicots

716,131

16,420

Monocots

192,355

2,710

Gymnosperms

6,171

80

Pteridophytes

38,380

225

Mosses

62,744

474

Liverworts

7,203

123

Lichens

40,010

500

Fungi

33,230

300

Algae

35,990

1,120

Fossils

-

-

Wood Samples

500

-

Accessioned

-

-

Unaccessioned

80,270

-

Total

1119410

-

NUMBER OF TYPES

21,952

Status:

Australian Vascular flora databased, ongoing databasing of non-Vascular and non-Australian flora.

Database Name:

MELISR

Database Description:

KE Texpress 6.2 running on Debian Linux .

Number of Specimen Records:

754,000

Access:

Presently restricted to Staff. Data are made available on request with a charge for the time taken to service the request.

Email and Internet:

firstname.surname@rbg.vic.gov.au
Limited specimen information available through AVH.

Significant Historical Collections:

D.J. Anderson, T. Anderson, W.E. Armit, J. Banks & D. Solander, R.A. Bastow, R.A. Black, W. Bauerlen, T.W.N. Beckett, H. Beckler, O.C. Berg, J.S. Blanchett, R. Brown, J. Chalmers, M. Coch, H. Cuming, J. Dallachy, A. Dietrich, J. Drummond, J.L. Dufour, C.F. Ecklon, H.O. Forbes, E. Giles, C. Gay, A.F.M. Glaziou, H.P. Guppy, H.F. Hance, W.H. Harvey, A. Henry, T. Horsfield, W.R. Hostmann, F.W. Junghuhn, J. Kirk, J.G.C. Lehmann, F.W.L. Leichhardt, L. Lepine, F. Leybold, F. Lindheimer, S. MacFarlane, E.A. Maire, C.F. P. von Martius, G. Maxwell, K. Moritz, A. Morrison, F.J.H. Mueller, A.F. Oldfield, J. Orknie, J. Pancher, J.A.L. Preiss, C.G. Pringle, T.S. Ralph, F.M. Reader, J. Reedy, J.F. Roberts, F. Roemer, G.W. Schimper, G. Schweinfurth, B. Seemann, F. Sellow, F.W. Sieber, O.W. Sonder, J. Steetz, C. Stuart, A. J. Tadgell, J.E.Teijsmann, J.H.K., Thwaites, N.A. Wakefield, F.M.J. Welwitsch, S.J.Whitmee, J.J.Widgren, R. Wight, H.B. Williamson, J.H. Willis, F.R.M Wilson, J.B. Wilson, C.L.P. Zeyher, H. Zollinger.

Significant Special Collections:

W. Hillebrand (Hawaii), O.W.Sonder herbarium, J. Steetz herbarium, A.C. Beauglehole, M. & J. Simmons, I.G. Stone, W.Woelkerling.

Ancillary Collections:

Spirit Collection of 8,305 jars. .

Photographic Collections:

Not catalogued. Includes colour transparencies and cibachromes of type material housed at K.

Botanical Library:

Access by appointment. Worldwide coverage in areas of Australian Taxonomy, Botanical History and Horticulture. Houses about 70,000 volumes.

Director:

Philip Moors

Divisional Director (Plant Sciences & Biodiversity):

David Cantrill (Southern Hemisphere flora)

Collections Manager:

Pina Milne

Plant Sciences Manager:

Frank Udovicic (Molecular Sytematics, Myrtaceae, Rhamnaceae)

Library Manager:

Helen Cohn (History of botanical research in Australia)

Ecologists/Evolutionary Biologists:

David Cantrill (Southern Hemisphere flora), Jeff Jeanes (orchids), Niels Klazenga (bryology, Dicranaceae), Juergen Kellermann (Rhamnaceae), Teresa Lebel (sequestrate fungi), Tom May (fungi), Pina Milne (bryology), Dan Murphy (Molecular systematics, Acacia), John Reid (botanical identification and information), Val Stajsic (botanical information), Frank Udovicic (Molecular systematics, Myrtaceae, Rhamnaceae), Neville Walsh (Flora of Victoria, Victorian census, Victorian rare and threatened species, Asteraceae, Poaceae, Rhamnaceae), Simone Louwhoff (lichens for Flora of Australia)

Ecology / Conservation Genetics:

Liz James (temperate grasslands)

Horticulture:

Rob Cross (micropropagation, plant selection, Phytophthora control), Roger Spencer (horticultural plants in South-Eastern Australia; nomenclature for cultivated plants)

Conservation Biology:

Jeff Jeanes (Victorian Conservation Seedbank), Tom May (rare and threatened fungi), Neville Walsh (Flora of Victoria, Victorian census, Victorian rare and threatened species)

Technical Officers:

Helen Barnes (Curation, Herbarium), Megan Hirst (Victorian Conservation Seedbank), Wayne Gebert (Curation, Herbarium), Helen Rommelaar (Curation, Herbarium), Judy Ryan (Volunteers Co-ordinator), Jill Thurlow (Library), Catherine Gallagher (Collections Co-ordinator), Alison Vaughan (Collections Information Officer), Nimal Karunajeewa (Curation, Raleigh Black Project)

IT Staff:

Sabine Glissmann-Gough (IT Manager), Geraldine Jones (Co-ordinator IT Operations), Peter Neish (Programmer), Frank Xu (Programmer), David Cash (Plant Information Officer), Sam Vukanovic (Digital Media Officer), Chris Wenn (IT Support).

Volunteers:

Currently 70

Associates:

Peter Adams (Dendrobium), Barbara Archer (flora of Esperance area, Western Australia),Helen Aston (aquatic angiosperms), Margaret Corrick (Fabaceae, vascular plants of Western Australia), Andrew Drinnan (floral development, fossil floras), Rod Home (History - Mueller Project), Jeff Jeanes (Orchids), Sheryl Lawson (Dendrobium), Sara Maroske (History - Mueller Project), Jim Ross (Fabaceae), Kevin Rule (Eucalyptus), Doris Sinkora (History - Mueller Project), Katrina Syme (Mycological art, Fungimap), Monika Wells (History - Mueller Project), Kathleen Ralston (lichens), Arthur Thies (bryophytes), Bill Woelkerling (coralline red algae), Ian Clarke (plant handbooks)

Taxonomic:

As indicated above

Non-Taxonomic:

Conservation of rare and threatened vascular plants in Victoria

Ex-situ conservation of terrestrial orchids

Fungimap

Mycophagy

Ecology of forest macrofungi

Greenlife Database TM

Control of Phytophthora in horticulture

Micropropagation of Proteaceae and tropical rainforest taxa

Director:

Mark McDonnell

Staff:

Julia Stammers (Administrative/Technical Assistant), Nick Williams (Post-doctoral Fellow), Amy Hahs (GIS Officer), Rodney van der Ree (Ecologist), Mick McCarthy (Senior Ecologist)

Relating to the Collection:

A Census of the Vascular Plants of Victoria.

Collecting and Preserving Herbarium Specimens.

Flora of Victoria.

Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia.

Muelleria.

Relating to the Herbarium:

Collecting and Preserving Herbarium Specimens

Notes:

Maintain nomenclatural databases for vascular plants of Victoria and fungi of Australia.