Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - Herbarium

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's extensive Herbarium numbers approximately three million specimens, representing half to two-thirds of the world’s flora. It is a leading botanical collection, with researchers from around the world visiting to study our specimens in a well-designed and user-friendly setting.

The collection is actively used to support research at RBGE and other institutes around the world. Each year we receive visits from around 200 scientists and we send approximately 4,000 specimens out on loan.

The specimens cover over 300 years of biodiversity, the oldest specimen collected in 1697. The collection is still one of the most active in the world, receiving up to 30,000 specimens each year. We have a major digitisation programme which has imaged nearly half a million specimens and these are now freely available online.