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Herbarium Collection

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Composition of vascular plant holdings
Here at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, the herbarium is organized using a system which combines phylogenetic, alphabetical, and geographic arrangements. Briefly, the higher order groupings, classes (and subclasses) are arranged phylogenetically, starting with the primitive vascular plants and ferns, through cone-bearing plants, monocots, and dicots.  Within these groupings, families and genera are alphabetical.  Within each genus, a color-coded breakdown of the world is used. 

Although strong in plants of California, the herbarium is worldwide in scope. Other areas of strength include the southwestern U.S., Mexico - especially Baja California, Australia, and regions of the former Soviet Union. In addition, the collection is recognized for its coverage of representative specimens of most families of flowering plants.  Today, the herbarium at RSABG is one of the leading repositories of plant specimens from arid, semi-arid, and Mediterranean climates globally.  The collections are used by scientists worldwide, and many specimens are loaned each year to other herbaria for use by their researchers.

In general, herbaria are built through collections made by the institution's staff, and through exchanges of duplicate specimens with other institutions. This is largely true of the Garden's herbarium.  Over the years, we have exchanged specimens with more than 250 institutions worldwide.  Certain elements of the RSA-POM collection, however, started as independent herbaria which were later transferred and incorporated into the integrated collection we have today. 

 

 

world map
Color coded regions of the world used used in our filing system
Filing Sequence
California (buff)
Mexico (blue)
Other North America (gray)
temperate Eurasia (brown)
Central and South America (red)
Africa (lavender)
tropical Australasia (S.E. Asia + Australia + Pacific Islands) (green)
plants of cultivated origin (yellow)