Herbaria

An irreplaceable tool at the service of plants

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The herbarium of the Botanical Gardens of Métropole du Grand Nancy and Université de Lorraine, which mainly consists of the collections of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Pharmacy, bears witness to the scientific work that has been produced by Université de Lorraine (Nancy) in the field of botany over two centuries.

Oenothera ligerica Deschâtres & R.Jean NCY010265 © RECOLNAT (ANR-11-INBS-0004) - Picturae - 2016
— Oenothera ligerica Deschâtres & R.Jean NCY010265 © RECOLNAT (ANR-11-INBS-0004) - Picturae - 2016

More than 300,000 herbarium plates are kept at the Jean-Marie Pelt Botanical Garden, dating from the 17th century to the present day.

Their study allows us to know the distribution of a plant at a given time and its evolution over time, to record new botanical discoveries, or to identify plants.

Nancy's herbaria have been computerised directly into the database of the French Natural History Museum (Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle) in Paris thanks to computer networks. This system has the double advantage of simultaneously making an inventory of the collections and sharing their botanical wealth, with the information being accessible to all via the Internet.

This partnership with the Paris Museum is the first national experiment to create a computer network of French herbaria.