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UB Herbarium


Curator: Prof. Dr. Caroline Oliveira Andrino


The Herbarium of the University of Brasilia (international abbreviation UB) is the largest in the Center-West region. It is a rich collection of herbarium specimens mounted in exsiccates, preserved at low temperature in a controlled environment.
 

Most consultations of the UB Herbarium's collection are aimed at identifying unknown plants, mainly for research, but also for the community, for example in cases of medicinal plants or those that have caused poisoning (contact the CDT to arrange identification). Another service often provided by the herbarium is the supply of additional information on plants whose identity the consultant already knows, such as flowering or fruiting time, uses, synonyms, authors of the scientific names, geographical occurrence and frequency. Occasionally, the Herbarium is approached by people wishing to provide information on medicinal plants that have been used successfully, rare or interesting food plants, or plants that cause poisoning.

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The UB Herbarium also has a library with several classic works such as the Flora Brasilienses by F. von Martius (in Latin), and the Dicionário de Plantas Úteis do Brasil by M. Pio Corrêa, as well as periodicals, books, various theses and around 2,000 reprints organized by journal title, which are in the process of being indexed and computerized by an ad hoc system. This library is consulted by students on various undergraduate courses and by postgraduate students in Botany. The Herbarium produces a biannual publication, the "Boletim Informativo do Herbário da Universidade de Brasília", the 4th issue of which, launched in 1998, contains a list of around 800 type specimens (= exsiccata witnesses) of new species described to science.
 

The Herbarium has a comparative collection of the flora of the Federal District, which consists of a flowering exsiccate and a fruiting exsiccate of all the vascular plants in the Federal District. The collection is also being illustrated with photographs, slides, descriptions and detailed habitat data, and should be of great use to the biological community, making it much easier to quickly identify local plants and allowing names to be updated quickly in the event of nomenclatural changes. The UB Herbarium is taking part in the Reflora Project, which is digitally repatriating samples of Brazilian flora.

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