George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver (1860s–1943) was an inventor, teacher, botanist, and mycologist (a…
A trip to Fire Island with Peggy Hopkins
While we might not get to summer with the likes of Madonna…
Good grief, Charles Geyer
Charles (Karl) A. Geyer was a pioneer botanical collector of the Northwestern…
Art Cronquist's Hat
If you spend time looking at herbarium specimens collected by Arthur Cronquist,…
Becoming a mountain woman
Marie Mooar spent a lot of time in the wilds of western…
Three Thousand Miles up the Amazon
At the age of 61, Ynés Mexía embarked on the adventure of…
The Lemmons: Partners in Botany
Sara Plummer met John Gill Lemmon in 1876 when he came to…
Alice Eastwood
Alice Eastwood was a self-taught Canadian-American botanist. After graduating from high school…
Fabian Michelangeli's field trip to Cuba, November 2013
A recent expedition to eastern Cuba took three Cuban colleagues and me…
Augustine Henry
Augustine Henry was one of the first and most prolific western botanists to collect in Central China,…
Jeanne Baret
CollectorsWomen in ScienceExpeditions
Jeanne Baret was the first woman ever to circumnavigate the globe, but…
Dolly's Lichen
NYBG lichen curator James Lendemer and then-PhD student Jessi Allen named this…
John Muir
John Muir (1838–1914) was an influential naturalist and conservationist, and co-founder of the…
Ellen Hutchins - Ireland's First Female Botanist
Between 1805 and 1813, in Ballylickey on the shores of Bantry Bay,…
Otto Kuntze
Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze was a german botanist who made expeditions to every…
The Brittons: Partners in Life and Botany
The establishment of The New York Botanical Garden was the result of…
John Torrey
John Torrey (1796-1873) is considered one of the most influential American botanists…
J. K. Small's exploration in Southern Florida, 1915
John Kunkel Small, botanist and herbarium curator at the the New York Botanical…
John Kunkel Small
John Kunkel Small (1869-1938) was a taxonomist and botanical explorer, who specialized…
4 Millionth Specimen
With 7,800,000 specimens in our herbarium, reaching 4,000,000 specimens catalogued in our…
Elizabeth Britton and the Curly-Grass Fern
Specimen StoriesWomen in Science
Tucked away in an office drawer of NYBG’s Fern Curator, Robbin Moran,…
Milestones
Since its inception NYBG has focused on building an extensive and valuable herbarium…
The Biltmore Herbarium: Botany and America’s Largest Home
Biltmore, a Gilded Era mansion in Asheville, North Carolina, is America’s largest…
Plants of Sítio Roberto Burle Marx
Roberto Burle Marx was an artist, a landscape architect and an early…
Art Cronquist's Tree: Japanese Wingnut
Recently walking on the NYBG grounds on a lovely spring day just…
The LGBTQ+ Legacy of NYBG: Out of the…
Herbarium specimens are kept in metal cabinets to protect them from damage.…
John Torrey’s Trip to California and Colorado, 1872
In July of 1872, John Torrey and his daughter Margaret departed on…
Oro City – A Colorado Ghost Town
Oro City was a gold placer (stream-bed) mining town in Colorado, founded…
Western Road Trip
In the summer of 1952, recently retired Wabash College¹ botany professor Albert…
From 1920’s adventure narrative to new species –…
Focus on ScienceWhat's in a name?
The amount of time between when a species is first collected and…
Salix loan to Japan
Botany is a collaborative science that relies on sharing data and specimens…
A botanist's best friend
Botanists and dogs make good companions in the field. Dogs provide companionship, warn…
Exploring the Bahamas with Lewis Jones Knight Brace
The Bahamas suffered its worst natural disaster recently as Hurricane Dorian, a…
Typical: Christmas in the clouds
Bassett Maguire (1904–1991), a botanist who spent the majority of his career…
Myanmar Mystery Solved
Working in a Herbarium sometimes requires detective work. This Myanmar mystery started…
An Unrequited Botanical Love Story
The love of botany is responsible for both fostering and hindering this…
Hidden Women Botanists - Mrs. Herbert Huntington Smith
The NYBG herbarium has over two thousand specimens that are labeled as collected…
Women in Genera
What's in a name?Women in Science
For as long as we've been using binomial nomenclature to name species,…
Mary Agnes Chase: Mentor, Activist, Botanist
Mary Agnes Chase was a self educated, determined, and influential botanist. Early…
Flora Borinqueña
In February 1906, Nathaniel and Elizabeth Britton, founders of The New York…
"Posy" Dodge, an Exemplary Citizen Scientist
In an age of growing efforts to engage the public in research…
Thomas Gaither - Activist and Biologist
Dr. Thomas Walter Gaither (1938 - ) was born in Great Falls, South…
Sister Mary Clare Metz: Faith and Flora
While digitizing specimens for the Texas and Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria,…
NYBG 2021 New Species Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plant, fungal, and lichen species from…
Bigelow's mushroom photographs
In the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden there are over 30,000…
Riclef Grolle
Riclef Grolle (1934 – 2004) was among the most dedicated and knowledgeable…
Dr. Héctor S. Osorio (1928-2016)
Dr. Héctor Saul Osorio, born in 1928 in Montevideo, was a Uruguayan…
Dra. Noris Salazar-Allen (1947-)
Noris Salazar-Allen, acclaimed researcher and bryologist, studies the group of non-vascular plants…
Dra. Gabriela G. Hässel de Menéndez (1927-2009)
Dra. Gabriela Gustava Hässel de Menéndez’s scientific career spanned almost sixty years…
Celebrating Cryptogamic Botanists from Latin America
The Caribbean, Central America, and South America have long been geographical focal…
Dra. Laura Guzmán-Dávalos (1961-)
Laura Guzmán-Dávalos’ explorations into the world of fungi are vast and far-reaching,…
Dra. Lidia Itatí Ferraro (1951-)
Dr. Lidia Itatí Ferraro, born in 1951, is an accomplished Argentine lichenologist.…
Ynés E. J. Mexia (1870-1938)
A social worker and Sierra Club member at the time, Ynés Mexia…
Dr. Juan Larraín (1979-)
Juan Larraín is a self-taught bryologist who focuses on bryophyte diversity in…
NYBG 2022 New Species Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plant, algal, fungal, and lichen…
NAACP member J. E. Spingarn and the Clematis…
Joel Elias Spingarn (May 17, 1875 - July 26, 1939) was a…
Carol Gracie: Interpreter of Nature's Stories
Women in ScienceWorks of ArtCollectors
A beloved member of the NYBG community for over 40 years, Carol…
NYBG 2023 New Species Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plants, algae, fungi, and lichens…