The history of the vascular plant collection may be traced to 1891 when Peter H. Rolfs established the Herbarium of Florida Agricultural College.

There are currently approximately 280,000 accessioned sheets of vascular plants with an excellent representation of the vascular flora of Florida, the southeastern United States coastal plain, and Haiti. The collection is rich in historical material dating back to the mid-1800s: e.g. from 1838 (Nicaragua), 1841 (the Carolinas), and 1843 (Florida).

Digitization and Organization

Currently about 2/3 of the vascular plant specimens are digitized and available online. Digitization initially prioritized type specimens, rare and invasive Florida species, historic collections (e.g. J.K. Small, A.P. Garber, etc.), incoming staff material, and research requests. For an overview of our complete holdings, please consult our cabinet door lists document (a lengthy pdf).

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Recognition of vascular plant families in the collection generally follow the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group and the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group. The families are arranged “phylogenetically” by a modified Dalla Torre and Harms numbering system (based on Engler and Prantl). This system is outlined in Dalla Torre and Harms (1908) – see “References” below. The family numbering codes we use are in our own family list PDFS (alphabetical, numerical).