The Herbarium

Phanerogams (seed plants)

Extant parts of the old Phanerogam herbarium

For various reasons (separate storage, on loan, etc.) the material of some plant families, genera, and a few entire special collections escaped the destruction completely or to a great extent; some examples are Begoniaceae, Pandanaceae, Antirrhinum, Herbarium Willdenow, collections of cones and fruits, Dingler's Rosa collection, etc. The extant remnants of larger collections, such as C. Koch's herbarium (cf. Lack 1978b), may also be mentioned here.

Shortly before the bombing raid type specimens had begun to be extracted from the general herbarium and put into the basement of the Museum. Through this action about 20,000 types and other old sheets were saved in families of Gymnosperms, Monocotyledons, and some of the Dicotyledons. Unfortunately this activity was not completed. Because not all types were marked several were overlooked. On the other hand some of the saved sheets are not type specimens. Lists of the surviving families were published by Sleumer (1949) and Pilger (1953 b : 27 f.). The dates of these publications were checked in the herbarium and are listed in combination with other data below.

A third category of extant material is the group of duplicates of different collections saved in 1943. Among this material many isotypes were found, and thus almost all families contain some old specimens. A few of these collections include A. Peter, H. J. Schlieben, and A. Stolz (E. Africa), G. Zenker (Cameroon), C. Ledermann (New Guinea, Caroline and Palau Is.), M. S. Clemens (New Guinea), and C. Troll (Bolivia and Africa).

Since the records of the distribution of duplicates from the Berlin herbarium were also destroyed the publication by Leeuwenberg (1965) on the distribution of collections from Africa is very useful in tracing isotypes from the old Berlin collections. The neotropical types of the Berlin herbarium - 15,800 according to Merrill (1943) - were photographed in the 1930s by J. F. Macbride for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and these photographs are available there (Grimé & Plowman 1986).

Another source of isotypes present today in the Botanical Museum was herbaria received after 1943 that contained duplicates of old Berlin collections, e.g., the herbaria of R. Gross (see Pilger 1953b: 28), K. Dinter, H. J. Schlieben, and from the botanical institute of Marburg University (Pilger l.c.: 35).

The published lists of types from certain families of flowering plants of the Berlin herbarium show that even in groups known to be totally destroyed in 1943 some old material can be found: Cucurbitaceae (Lack 1978a), Flacourtiaceae and related families (Zepernick 1978 & 1979), and Orchidaceae (Butzin 1978, 1980 & 1981).

Because of the complex situation after the destruction of the herbarium building the present holdings of the herbarium are extremely heterogeneous. Besides families containing hundreds of types there are other groups almost without type material.

[Text from P. Hiepko in Englera 7: 219-252, 1987; modified and some references added]

List of Families including extant collections of the Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem (B) from the time before 1943

In the following list the saved material of all groups of the general herbarium is compiled. It should be borne in mind that in almost all families of Phanerogams additional type material from other sources can be found. The material of the saved special collections was not taken into account.

types = types (and/or other old specimens) extant

loan = specimens on loan during the war, returned to Berlin between 1951 and 1983.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.

Acanthaceae, loan: 311 sheets
Achatocarpaceae, types
Aizoaceae, types
Amaranthaceae, types; loan: 119 sheets
Amaryllidaceae, types, cf. Arroyo-Leuenberger & Leuenberger (1996); loan: 309 sheets
Annonaceae, types; loan: 545 sheets
Apiaceae - see Umbelliferae
Aponogetonaceae, types
Araceae, types
Arecaceae - see Palmae
Asclepiadaceae, loan: 125 sheets (Dischidia, Hoya, mostly types of Schlechter)
Asteraceae - see Compositae
Balsaminaceae, material - excl. Eurasia - extant
Begoniaceae, completely extant (on loan during the war at Irmscher)
Berberidaceae, types
Bignoniaceae, loan: 38 sheets
Brassicaceae - see Cruciferae
Bromeliaceae, types
Bruniaceae, types
Burmanniaceae, types
Cactaceae, types in the spirit collection ( Leuenberger 1978 & 1979). Extant type in the general herbarium: Cereus deserticola Werderm. (Leuenberger & Eggli 1996).
Campanulaceae, loan: the greater part of Lobelioideae (30 fasc.)
Capparaceae, types
Casuarinaceae, types
Centrolepidaceae, types
Cephalotaxaceae, types
Ceratophyllaceae, types
Commelinaceae, types p.p.
Compositae, loan: 82 sheets (Senecio). Several old Hieracium collections extant, e.g. Schack, Touton (Vogt 1998), Zahn (Lack 1978c) (see App. A)
Convolvulaceae, loan: 25 sheets (S. America)
Corsiaceae, types
Crassulaceae, loan: 859 sheets (Aichryson, cf. Bañares Baudet 1997)
Cruciferae, types
Cucurbitaceae, a few types (Lack 1978a)
Cunoniaceae, types
Cyperaceae, types p.p. (Cyperus s.l. and Eleocharis p.p.), many isotypes ex herb. R. Gross. On the Cyperaceae herb. of G. Kükenthal see Schultze-Motel 1960a; on Cyperaceae of A. Peter see Schultze Motel 1960b
Dioscoreaceae, types
Droseraceae, types
Elaeocarpaceae, types of Knuth (leg. Clemens, New Guinea)
Eriocaulaceae, types
Euphorbiaceae, loan: 208 sheets
Flacourtiaceae, some types, see Zepernick (1978 and 1979)
Gentianaceae, loan: 179 sheets (Centaurium)
Gnetaceae, types
Gramineae, types (p.p., excl. Bambuseae); loan: 476 sheets. Types of Axonopus: Scholz 1977; types of Penicillaria (Scholz 1979)
Grubbiaceae, types
Gyrostemonaceae, types
Hamamelidaceae, types
Hernandiaceae, types
Hydrocharitaceae, loan: 20 sheets (Ottelia)
Illiciaceae, types
Iridaceae, types; loan: 482 sheets
Labiatae, loan: 271 sheets (Thymus & Mentha)
Lactoridaceae, types
Lamiaceae - see Labiatae
Lauraceae, types p.p. maj. (types of some neotropical genera missing)
Liliaceae, types
Loranthaceae, types (Gebauer 1993a, 1993b)
Magnoliaceae, types
Malesherbiaceae, 1 isotype, cf. Zepernick (1979)
Malvaceae, loan: 10 sheets (Nototriche)
Marantaceae, types p.p.
Mayacaceae, types
Meliaceae, old material Incl. many isotypes from Reliquiae Harmsianae
Menispermaceae, types
Misodendraceae, types (Arroyo-Leuenberger & Leuenberger 1998)
Moraceae, types; loan: 198 sheets (Sorocea)
Musaceae, types p.p.min.
Myrothamnaceae, types
Nepenthaceae, types
Nyctaginaceae, types
Nymphaeaceae, types; loan: 36 sheets
Octocnemataceae, types
Olacaceae, types
Onagraceae, loan: 964 sheets (Jussiaea)
Opiliaceae, types
Orchidaceae, some types (cf. Butzin 1978, 1980 & 1981; Butzin 1983)
Palmae, collection of palm fruits completely extant; the greater part of the herbarium specimens is also extant (cf. Balick 1980)
Pandanaceae, all material extant
Papaveraceae, types
Passifloraceae, some types, cf. Zepernick (1979)
Phytolaccaceae, types
Piperaceae, types
Poaceae - see Gramineae
Podocarpaceae, types
Podostemonaceae, types
Polygonaceae, types
Portulacaceae, types
Proteaceae, types
Ranunculaceae, loan: 16 types (Clematis, Delphinium from tropical Africa); 643 sheets (Ranunculus)
Rapateaceae, types
Resedaceae, types
Restionaceae, types
Rhamnaceae, loan: 78 sheets
Rosaceae, types p.p.min.; loan: 660 sheets (Rosa); Dingler's Rosa herbarium completely extant
Santalaceae, types
Sapindaceae, more than 100 duplicates of S. American collections
Saxifragaceae, types p.p. (e.g. Escallonia, Polyosma, Quintinia)
Schisandraceae, types
Scrophulariaceae, loan: 1598 sheets (incl. all material of Antirrhinum and Kickxia)
Simaroubaceae, loan: 31 sheets
Solanaceae, loan: 37 sheets
Sparganiaceae, types
Stemonaceae, types
Taccaceae, types
Taxaceae, types
Tovariaceae, types
Turneraceae, some types, cf. Zepernick (1979)
Typhaceae, types
Ulmaceae, types
Umbelliferae, loan: 28 sheets (Ferula)
Urticaceae, loan: 258 sheets
Velloziaceae, many old specimens extant (incl. types)
Violaceae, some types, cf. Zepernick (1979)
Winteraceae, types
Xyridaceae, types
Zingiberaceae, types (p.p.) and other old material

The holdings of the Phanerogam herbarium at present total approximately 1,5 million sheets of world-wide collections, but especially from Europe, S. W. Asia, and Africa. The material is now stored in compactors in a windowless new building.