Centre for Organismal Studies Herbarium (HEID)

The HEID Herbarium comprises about 350,000 specimens, with plants predominantly from South America (focus on the Andes) and Africa (especially Madagascar, Kenya)

The foundation of the collection (“Old Herbarium”) consists of collections assembled in the 19th century, including the private herbaria of G.W. Bischoff (from 1839, the first full professor of botany in Heidelberg) and his successor W. Hofmeister. A focus of the collections since the mid-20th century (“New Herbarium”) includes, particularly, the herbarium specimens of the Heidelberg botanists W. Rauh, W. Hagemann, and K. Senghas, which derive from numerous research expeditions between 1950 and 1980.

In 2003, the development of a modern research herbarium began, with a focus on Brassicaceae and the Central European flora, which increased the number of specimens by 45,000. HEID also holds about 2,300 type specimens. All type specimens of African taxa have now been digitized and are available via the “African Plant Initiative” (API) and JSTOR “Global Plants.”