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Collections and Research areas
  Collections & Research . Collections and Research areas . Natural Environment . Plants

Plants

Kowhai Detail

Te Papa maintains a Plant Collection, or herbarium, of almost 250,000 dried specimens. It covers both native and introduced flowering plants and gymnosperms, ferns, mosses, liverworts, lichens, and marine algae, from all parts of New Zealand. As well as dried specimens there are plant fossils, a range of timber samples, and material preserved in alcohol.

 

Te Papa also houses a collection of overseas species, mostly from areas related to New Zealand such as Australia, the Pacific, and Europe.

 

The collection has been built up in various ways since the foundation of the Museum in 1865:

  • by the donation of large private collections from many well-known New Zealand botanists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
  • by exchange with other institutions
  • by a continuing programme of fieldwork throughout the country

The oldest New Zealand specimens are those collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during James Cook’s first voyage in 1769.

 

In addition to plant specimens, there is an extensive botanical library and archival material, relating to early botanists and collectors.

 

The herbarium is regularly used by botanists, historians, researchers, and members of the public. As well as researching New Zealand plants, staff provide botanical information to outside organisations and individuals, prepare material for display and education programmes, and give talks and workshops on native plants.

 

Archival Material

 

The herbarium holds biographical information about many early New Zealand botanists and details of their collections. The information is held as files of primary and secondary material such as field notebooks, diaries, and correspondence, as card indices and databases, or as published record.

 


Research Projects

Find out more about research programmes being run by members of the botany team.

 

Mosses and Liverworts

New Zealand has over 1100 species of mosses and liverworts, and there are more than 50,000 specimens in the collections. The moss collection is one of the fastest growing areas of Te Papa’s herbarium.

 

Marine Algae

Some 800 species of marine algae are currently recognised in New Zealand, with many new species being described each year.  Te Papa holds the largest and best curated collection of New Zealand material in the world.


Lichens

Research on New Zealand’s lichens is rapidly expanding the number of known species, now estimated at nearly 1600. Te Papa’s collection of almost 15,000 specimens is dominated by the nineteenth-century Charles Knight collection.

 

Flowering Plants and Gymnosperms

Te Papa has about 138,000 specimens of flowering plants and gymnosperms in this collection, representative of the 4000 native and introduced species known to occur naturally in New Zealand. There are also extensive collections of overseas species.


Ferns

New Zealand’s 230 species of ferns and fern allies, as well as many overseas species, are well represented by over 19,000 specimens. These range from those collected on Cook’s first voyage to the present day specimens.

 

Experts


Publications

 Some of our botany team's recent publications.