J. K. Small's exploration in Southern Florida, 1915
John Kunkel Small, botanist and herbarium curator at the the New York Botanical…
Collections
John Kunkel Small, botanist and herbarium curator at the the New York Botanical…
John Kunkel Small (1869-1938) was a taxonomist and botanical explorer, who specialized…
Cabinet of CuriositiesFocus on Science
Watch out, these plants are hungry! Most carnivorous plants grow in bogs…
With names like Stinking Benjamin, Corpse Flower, and Skunk Cabbage; these flowers…
With 7,800,000 specimens in our herbarium, reaching 4,000,000 specimens catalogued in our…
It's springtime and the daffodils are blooming outside! In the herbarium, these…
Cabinet of CuriositiesWorks of Art
If we were to give yearbook superlatives to herbarium specimens, these would…
This lichen grows as an epiphyte on trees. They require clean air,…
Cabinet of CuriositiesSpecimen Stories
In the museum world, there's a sort of joke that you never…
The lilacs are blooming here at the Garden, gracing us with their…
When you think of a rare, endangered species, you may think of far-off…
Plants have evolved many ways to protect themselves, from growing barbs that…
Cabinet of CuriositiesFocus on Science
Behold this fern which has the highest recorded chromosome number of any living…
Astragalus osterhoutii M. E. Jones (or Osterhout milkvetch) is an herbaceous plant known…
Specimen StoriesWomen in Science
Tucked away in an office drawer of NYBG’s Fern Curator, Robbin Moran,…
Always a destination for Mother's Day, the Azalea Garden is a spring…
Since its inception NYBG has focused on building an extensive and valuable herbarium…
Almost everyone can name an endangered charismatic megafauna. But most would be…
In the United States, there is no formal regulation for the endangered…
Plants are amazing and can adapt to live in the most unlikely…
The Kauai Digit Fern, or Doryopteris angelica, is a rare fern found in the forest on…
People might pass over these green specimens 'cause they're not standing out…
As the many plants to be digitized in the Endless Forms project,…
Vitis is the genus of one of the world’s favorite horticultural crop:…
Biltmore, a Gilded Era mansion in Asheville, North Carolina, is America’s largest…
Some characters are altered in the drying process used to create herbarium specimens.…
I remember coming across Selaginella lepidophylla while imaging herbarium specimens for the…
Roberto Burle Marx was an artist, a landscape architect and an early…
This Calathea species was collected by botanist Helen Kennedy in Roberto Burle…
Focus on ScienceCabinet of Curiosities
Meet the genus Cuscuta, or as I like to refer to them,…
Recently walking on the NYBG grounds on a lovely spring day just…
As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots during…
Cabinet of CuriositiesSpecimen Stories
The beloved children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar is turning 50! See many of…
Can't get away to the beach? Let these field photographs and algae…
While imaging herbarium specimens, I was struck by the unusual colors of…
Herbarium specimens are kept in metal cabinets to protect them from damage.…
In July of 1872, John Torrey and his daughter Margaret departed on…
When fireworks are needed, no matter the reason, these herbarium specimens will help…
The Berimbau is the musical instrument played in capoeira. It consists of a…
The Native Plant Garden is looking lovely right now! Some plants that…
Working with specimens from New Mexico for the Southern Rocky Mountain Digitization…
Specimen StoriesWhat's in a name?
One of the common names for the genus Erythronium is the dogtooth…
Oro City was a gold placer (stream-bed) mining town in Colorado, founded…
The Grand Canyon might be the grandest of canyons carved by the…
When visiting giant sequoia trees, you spend a lot of time looking…
In the summer of 1952, recently retired Wabash College¹ botany professor Albert…
It might be hard to believe the Bechtels could take their eyes…
Focus on ScienceWhat's in a name?
The amount of time between when a species is first collected and…
Botany is a collaborative science that relies on sharing data and specimens…
Cabinet of CuriositiesWhat's in a name?
Dogs have a special place in our lives, as trusting companions and…
Specimen StoriesWhat's in a name?
Dogs have not always been the beloved companions and family members they…
Major William Rich was selected to be the botanist on the U. S.…
Cabinet of CuriositiesExpeditions
Herbarium specimens have been collected at poignant points in history. Major William Rich was…
Focus on ScienceWhat's in a name?
Calling all cat lovers! As I was digitizing plants for the Southern…
Choose your tomato persona. While all the same species, Solanum lycopersicum, tomatoes…
If you're staying cool this summer in your favorite swimming hole, here are…
Botanists and dogs make good companions in the field. Dogs provide companionship, warn…
This specimen arrived as part of an exchange from another herbarium, wrapped…
The Amazon Rain Forest, Earth’s largest tropical rain forest, is an immense…
The Bahamas suffered its worst natural disaster recently as Hurricane Dorian, a…
Specimen StoriesFocus on Science
From the woolly mammoth to the passenger pigeon, many extinct species owe…
One of the most visually apparent impacts of climate change are the emerging…
It has been documented that since the industrial revolution there has been an…
Changing climate means changing landscapes. Herbarium specimens document what plants are growing in…