The Department of Botany offers a unique combination of resources and experience and a wide variety of services available by contract. As part of the Museum's interdisciplinary Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias, our mission is to serve as the leading center for the scientific study of natural history, biological diversity, and evolution within our region.

Please visit our BioServices page for a full list of field survey and monitoring services

Herbarium Services

• Access to the collections and reference resources for identification and distributional information
• Database searches for collections in geographic areas or species distributional information
• Authoritative identification of plants specimens by the curator
• Housing and curation of plant specimens serving as vouchers for plant surveys and other investigations
• Use of botanical photographs from the department's slide and print collection
• Expert opinion in legal cases

Collections

• Herbarium reference collection of over 215,000 voucher specimens spanning 130 years
• Nonvascular subcollections containing algae, lichens, fungi and bryophytes
• A type collection of about 400 types dominated by specimens from southern California and the Baja California peninsula.
• Synoptic collections for the floras of San Diego County, Imperial County, and the Baja California peninsula
• Botanical image collection of over 30,000 photographic prints, slides and digital images

Research Resources

• Facilities—1500-sq.-ft. herbarium with mobile storage system, lab space, and wet lab
• Equipment—three electric plant dryer cabinets, 190-sq.-ft. walk-in freezer for use in pest management, fume hood, phase contrast and dissecting microscopes, slide scanner and a large-format flatbed high-resolution scanner, and GIS-capable computers
• Research Library—library of more than 55,000 volumes staffed by professional librarian
• Additional Museum Resources—access to full-time IT staff, a graphics department, and the departments of Education, Birds and Mammals, Entomology, Herpetology, Marine Invertebrates, and Paleontology.
  
  

In addition, we have a wide network of contacts and cooperative relationships with scientists, biological consultants, and public agencies.