Herbarium MSB and digitization

Herbarium MSB

The Herbarium (MSB) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) was founded in 1991 and currently (November 2018) comprises about 200,000 specimens of vascular plants from several continents, it is located at the Bavarian State Collection of Botany.

The collection initially was mainly based on the private herbarium of Prof. Dr. Dietrich Podlech, who collected nearly 100,000 specimens, with an emphasis on legumes, especially Astragalus, and the countries Afghanistan, Yemen, Northern Africa (Algeria, Tunesia, Marocco) and the Mediterranean (e.g., Spain). In addition, MSB includes material collected by staff and students of the LMU, including PD Dr. Matthias Erben (collections from the Mediterranean and Limonium), Dr. Bernhard Dickoré (collections from the Himalaya region), bought with funds from the University's President, and Prof. Dr. Helmut Freitag (collections from Afghanistan and adjacent countries).

Digitalisation and online accessibility

Between 2004 and 2014, 1,371 of the 200,000 specimens from MSB have been digitized with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, originally via the African Plants Initiative (API) and later via the Global Plants Initiative of JSTOR Plant Sciences. They can be found at JSTOR Global Plants, Virtuelles Herbarium Deutschland, and GBIF. Digital specimen images generated during earlier projects are also included, such as those from 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.

Scanning station (Nadezha Pochitaneva scanning)

© Suvrat Kotagal

Starting in 2025 a mass digitization project started aiming to image the 3000000 specimens present in the State Collection of Botany. This has be done with 2 stations of Archive scanner (Fujifilm GFX 100) for digitization of macro objects, with a Resolution: 600 DPI and with the help of several students. Up until March 2026 a total of almost 80000 specimens have been scanned, and the metadata has been extracted with the use of machine learning- assisted specimen digitization.

Loans and regulations

Material from MSB is intercalated with material from M (Botanische Staatssammlung München), and loans are sent together. MSB has only vascular plants.

Loan regulations

Loans are made to recognized scientific institutions involved in botanical research. Loans ordinarily are not made to individuals.
Loan requests should be made by email and should contain the study purpose.
Should your research include destructive methods, special permission by our curatorial staff is necessary. Requests should be made directly with the loan request, and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
The receiving institution is expected to accept responsibility for the safe custody and return of the specimens. Loan material must not be removed from the institution to which they are on loan.
Loans are normally granted for 3 months up to 1 year. Extension may be granted.
Because of increasing postal costs, restrictions may apply on the amount of material sent out at any one time.
Annotation labels, written legibly in permanent ink or typed and preferably of small size, must be attached to each collection returned. Any additional information, which might be of value to future researchers, including notification about removed samples, should also be provided.
The lending institution, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Herbarium MSB, must be acknowledged appropriately in any publications or other materials that present results derived from use of the loaned specimens. A copy of any publications resulting from study of loan material would be appreciated.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Elfriede and Franz Jakob Foundation for supporting research at the University Herbarium and Botanical Garden in Munich.

Contact

MSB Herbarium
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
67 Menzinger Street
80638 Munich
Germany

Director

Prof. Dr. Gudrun Kadereit
Phone: +49 89 17861-260
Email: G.Kadereit@lmu.de
Supervised by the curators of the Munich State Botanical Collection

Curatorial Assistant

Camila Uribe-Holguin
Phone: +49 89 17861-227
Email: c.uribe@lmu.de