Herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum (A)

Michael Dosmann, Keeper of the Living Collections and Rosetta Elkin, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Pratt Institute discuss Crataegus (Hawthorn). Image credit: Kyle Port
Michael Dosmann, Keeper of the Living Collections and Rosetta Elkin, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Pratt Institute discuss hawthorns

Established in 1872, the Herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum (A) contains approximately 1.5 million specimens housed in repositories across Harvard University. While the bulk of these collections reside on the main campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Herbarium of Cultivated Plants is curated at The Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Related campus-wide resources comprise the Harvard University Herbaria and are one of the largest (more than 5 million specimens) university collections in the world; third largest in the United States.

Dried specimens preserve genetic information, provide data on historical flowering and fruiting times, and play a vital role in understanding evolutionary relationships among plants, their geographic distributions, and their economic uses. Herbarium vouchers are routinely gathered to support research and are a necessary component of living collections documentation and worldwide plant expedition initiatives.

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Cultivated Herbarium specimen of Davidia involucrata
Voucher specimen of Davidia involucrata 14473*A.Herbarium of Cultivated Plants

Herbarium of Cultivated Plants

As of January 2026, the Herbarium of Cultivated Plants contains 124,732 specimens. Of these, 49,304 specimens document extant and historic accessions while 69,314 non-Arnold Arboretum specimens have been amassed from cultivated sources across North America, Asia, and Europe. Smaller specialty collections include Spontaneous Flora, Seed Herbarium, and Dried Emerging Leaves (DEL).

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Management and development of the collection is guided by the Cultivated Herbarium Collections Policy [pdf]. Read more about the utility of maintaining specimens of cultivated origin in the Herbarium of Cultivated Plants (formerly the Cultivated Herbarium, Horticultural Herbarium):

  • Dosmann, M. 2007. The Arnold Arboretum’s Living Collections: A Respository for Research. Arnoldia 65(2): 30–39. [pdf].
  • Miller-Rushing, A.J.; Primack, R.B.; Imbres, C.; Del Tredici, P. 2004. Herbarium Specimens as a Novel Tool for Climate Change Research. Arnoldia 63(2): 26-32. [pdf]
  • Sutton, S.B. 1965. The Herbarium Introduced. Bulletin of Popular Information vol. 25 no. 6: 38-40. [pdf].
  • Kobuski, C.E. 1958. The Horticultural Herbarium. Bulletin of Popular Information vol. 18 no. 5: 25-28. [pdf].

Access

The Herbarium of Cultivated Plants is located in the Hunnewell Building and is open, by appointment, Monday through Friday, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Please contact the Keeper of Living Collections at mdosmann@oeb.harvard.edu to make an appointment. The herbarium is closed weekends and holidays.

Initiatives

Voucher specimens and emergent leaves are collected from Arboretum accessions annually. These primarily support research, identity verification, collections development goals, and biodiversity monitoring.