New York Botanical Garden (NY)

The Steere Bryophyte Herbarium holds perhaps the most important collection of bryophytes in the world in terms of the number of specimens, and the geographical and taxonomic depth and breadth. The herbarium contains approximately 640,000 specimens (520,000 mosses and 120,000 hepatics and hornworts). Of this total, approximately 24,500 (4%) are type specimens. This is the largest bryophyte herbarium in the Western Hemisphere and is among the five largest worldwide. The collection continues to grow actively today through staff collections and exchange. The emphasis is on collections from the Western Hemisphere, but virtually all areas of the world are represented.
Collections Manager of Cryptogamic Herbarium: Laura Briscoe, lbriscoe@nybg.org (ORCID #: 0000-0002-3900-4450)
Assistant Director of the Herbarium for Botanical Information Management: Kimberly Watson, kwatson@nybg.org
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 16 February 2023
IPT / DwC-A Source:
Digital Metadata: EML File
Collection Statistics
  • 494,666 specimen records
  • 212,030 (43%) georeferenced
  • 89,070 (18%) with images (106,915 total images)
  • 351 (0.07%) identified to species
  • 233 families
  • 351 genera
  • 148 species
  • 162 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
Geographic Distribution
Click on the specimen record counts within the parenthesis to return the records for that term