The Herbarium
The pteridophyte herbarium is the single major portion of the General Herbarium in Berlin to have survived the wartime destruction of 1943. It has suffered but minimal losses (two small families, Marattiaceae and Ophioglossaceae, having been burnt). By its immense richness in historical material, including many types, it bears witness of what the entire Berlin collections must once have been. Among its major assets are the original specimens of, e.g., Alderwerelt van Rosenburgh, A. Braun, Hieronymus, Klotzsch, Kunth, Link, Mettenius, Rosenstock, as well as a large duplicate set from Kunze whose collections were destroyed in Leipzig, and isotypes from almost all prominent botanists of the 19th and 20th centuries who worked on pteridophytes. Today the pteridophyte collection of the Botanical Museum, comprising c. 300,000 specimens, may well be the world's largest herbarium of its kind.
Information on Berlin pteridophyte type material (including photographs and protologues) will be provided on this web site in the future. The copying of protologues, checking and separating of type material, as well as putting up of electronic type lists has already been started and covers at present type information for c. 600 taxa (c. 1500 checked type specimens).
[Text: B. Zimmer]
