The Herbarium of the JBRJ

Rio de Janeiro’s Botanical Garden Research Institute Herbarium, registered in 1938 in the Index Herbariorum under the acronym RB, contains an estimated 450,000 specimens which have been collected over two centuries, including the collection that belonged to Emperor D. Pedro II (estimated at 25,000 plants, the majority of which are exotic). There are groups of cryptogams: algae (6,000), bryophytes (7,000), lichens (4,000), fungi (4,000), and phanerogams: gymnosperms (3,000) and angiosperms (420,000). The carpological collection contains samples of almost all existing forms of fruit (over 6,000), from the simplest to the most exotic. In the xylarium (wood collection, registered in the Index Xylariorum under RBw), there are samples of Brazilian lianas, shrubs and trees, as well as histological woodcuts. The photographic collection contains images of around 9,000 Brazilian plants from various herbaria in Europe, nomenclatural types and collections cited in Martius' Flora Brasiliensis. The DNA bank, which was started at the end of 2002, already includes some 2,000 samples of species of Brazilian flora. Finally, the collection of nomenclatural types, estimated at about 6,000 samples, is considered the largest in Brazil. Apart from its intrinsic value, the collection can provide insight into the history of the Institute and its researchers, as well as into the development of botany in Brazil, in the search for knowledge of its own biodiversity.