About "The Herbarium at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München"

The Collection

The Herbarium (MSB) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München was founded in 1991 and comprises ca. 200,000 specimens of vascular plants from several continents.

The collection was mainly based on the private herbarium of Dietrich Podlech (* 1931), who gathered nearly 100,000 specimens, with an emphasis on Afghanistan, Yemen, Northern Africa (Algeria, Tunesia, Marocco) and the Mediterranean (e.g., Spain).

In addition, MSB includes material collected by staff members and students of the LMU, including Matthias Erben (* 1943, collections from the Mediterranean and Limonium), Harald Förther (* 1963; collections from Guatemala, Germany etc.), Hans-Jürgen Tillich (* 1943) and Maximilian Weigend (* 1969, collections from Peru, Germany etc.). MSB also acquired the private herbarium of Bernhard Dickoré (* 1960, collections from the Himalaya).

D. Podlech is an outstanding expert on the systematics of Astragalus (Fabaceae), one of the largest genera of flowering plants (Podlech 2008). MSB holds an excellent collection of this genus, including numerous type specimens.

Data Project and Service

The data project "The Herbarium at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München" was established by Dr. Hans-Joachim Esser and Dr. Franz Schuhwerk. It is work in progress with the aim to make accessible those specimens of which are currently subject of scientific or curatorial activities on-site. It uses Diversity Workbench components.

Since 2004 data of the "The Herbarium at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München" were generated with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, originally via the African Plants Initiative (API), currently via the Global Plants Initiative of JSTOR Plant Sciences. Data from former projects are also included, such as those of INFOCOMP (2000–2003), a project within the German Initiative BIOLOG (Biodiversity and Global Change) funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) and intended to digitize types of Compositae. The data are maintained and expanded by staff members of the Botanische Staatssammlung München, Department of Vascular Plants. Notices of errors of any kind are much appreciated by the editorial staff here. Technical support is provided by the Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, IT Center.

The Database "The Herbarium at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München" and – if not stated otherwise – its supporting files have been copyrighted © 2010–2024 by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.