Brown University (BRU)

The Brown University Herbarium was founded in 1869 when the University acquired the collections of the Providence Franklin Society and Stephen Thayer Olney. The collection includes around 100,000 plant specimens and is an important depository of Rhode Island and New England collections. It is also rich in western and southern North American plants and includes special sets of historically valuable specimens from 19th and early 20th century western US expeditions. Among other important collections, the herbarium also includes a full set of Charles Wright’s Cuban plants (1856-1867) and a unique and classic collection of Carex. Click here to download a pdf brochure describing the herbarium.
Contacts: Rebecca Kartzinel, rebecca_kartzinel@brown.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 1 March 2024
Digital Metadata: EML File
Usage Rights: CC BY (Attribution)
Rights Holder: Brown University
Cite this collection:
Brown University. Occurrence dataset (ID: 3b661ddc-3155-450b-85ca-e8b29fe50ea9) accessed via the PteridoPortal Portal, /portal, 2024-03-28).
Collection Statistics
  • 6,101 specimen records
  • 226 (4%) georeferenced
  • 5,868 (96%) with images (6,879 total images)
  • 5,891 (97%) identified to species
  • 40 families
  • 122 genera
  • 1,296 species
  • 1,311 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
Taxon Distribution
Taxon Distribution
  • Salvinia (3)