Herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The Herbarium also refers to the building or room where the specimens are housed.
Herbarium specimen can be whole plant or the part of the plant. usually these plant of plant parts are dried using herbarium making procedures and mounted on a paper sheet which is generally termed as "Herbarium Sheet". In some cases depends on the plants or the plant parts are preserved in liquid form using Alcohol or other preservatives.
These Herbaria are mainly used as a reference materials for describing particular taxa while some specimens can be type specimens.
List of some existing Herbaria in India.
Agharkar Research Institute
Botanical Survey of India, Deccan Regional Centre
Botanical Survey of India, Eastern Circle
Botanical Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre
Central National Herbarium, India.
Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, India.
Herbarium of the Indian Botanic Gardens, Calcutta
Herbarium of the National Botanic Gardens, Lucknow
Herbarium of the Division of Botany, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, (I.A.R.I.), New Delhi
Why AARI HERBARIUM?
Most of the Indian Herbarium centers are specialized for Angiosperm herbaria and the least attention drawn towards algal specimens hence AARI Herbarium is instituted to develop the specialized herbarium center for the field of Algology.