Abstract
We provide a quantitative description of the French national herbarium vascular plants collection dataset. Held at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Paris, it currently comprises records for 5,400,000 specimens, representing 90% of the estimated total of specimens. Ninety nine percent of the specimen entries are linked to one or more images and 16% have field-collecting information available. This major botanical collection represents the results of over three centuries of exploration and study. The sources of the collection are global, with a strong representation for France, including overseas territories, and former French colonies. The compilation of this dataset was made possible through numerous national and international projects, the most important of which was linked to the renovation of the herbarium building. The vascular plant collection is actively expanding today, hence the continuous growth exhibited by the dataset, which can be fully accessed through the GBIF portal or the MNHN database portal (available at: https://science.mnhn.fr/institution/mnhn/collection/p/item/search/form). This dataset is a major source of data for systematics, global plants macroecological studies or conservation assessments.
Highlights
The dataset (Data Citation 1) of the Paris vascular plant herbarium (P) contains information on the collection of angiosperms, gymnosperms and vascular cryptogams held by the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
This collection constitutes, together with the non-vascular plant collections (PC), France’s National Herbarium, which houses a total of ca. 8 million specimens
The collection at P includes ca. 6 million specimens mostly mounted on herbarium sheets, along with alcohol-preserved specimens, dry fruits and seeds, wood samples, pollen slides, histological slides and samples preserved in silica-gel for genetic studies
Summary
The dataset (Data Citation 1) of the Paris vascular plant herbarium (P) contains information on the collection of angiosperms, gymnosperms and vascular cryptogams held by the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN). The main body of the collection (the ‘general collection’), which is physically arranged according to a systematic classification system, was built through donations, inter-institutional exchange programs and field expeditions conducted by the MNHN and collaborators. It holds an estimated 200,000 type specimens (about 96% of which have been databased) and historically important collections such as those of Jussieu and Lamarck
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