Allan Herbarium (CHR)
History
The Allan Herbarium (CHR) was founded in 1928 with the appointment of H. H. Allan as systematic botanist to the Plant Research Station, Palmerston North. The nucleus of the collection was formed by the donation of H. H. Allan's private collection and specimens from the old Biological Laboratory, Department of Agriculture. In 1936 the Plant Research Station was transferred to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and was relocated to Wellington in 1937. In 1954 the Herbarium was relocated to Christchurch, before being moved to a purpose-built facility at Lincoln in 1960. Custodianship of the collection was transferred from DSIR Botany Division to Landcare Research in 1992. In 2001, it was named the Allan Herbarium to acknowledge the contributions of H. H. Allan to New Zealand botany.
The Allan Herbarium contains species from around the world but specialises in plants (indigenous and exotic) of the New Zealand region and Pacific. It also has specialist collections of seed, fruit, wood, plant leaf cuticle, liquid-preserved specimens, and microscope slides. The oldest samples are the 91 duplicate specimens collected by Banks and Solander during Captain Cook's first voyage to New Zealand, 1769-1770.
Purpose
The Allan Herbarium's function is to collect and record the flora of New
Zealand, and to make this information readily available to researchers,
and regional and national authorities. The collections are used by systematists
to identify species accurately and to undertake morphological studies, by
ecologists to determine historical distributions of species, by Biosecurity
Officers to identify weeds, and by the general
public (including botanical groups) for various information on plants in
New Zealand.
There are about 600 000 specimens in the Allan Herbarium with 5000-8000 being added annually. Two-thirds of the specimens are of indigenous plants with the remainder divided between naturalised, cultivated, and foreign specimens. The Herbarium also provides a special archival function: preserving records of plants occurring in habitats destroyed since European land use.
Several databases are associated with the Herbarium.
Links to other Herbaria
In New Zealand, 22 herbaria (containing well over 1 330 000 specimens) form the New Zealand National Herbarium Network. The Allan Herbarium is the biggest herbarium in the New Zealand network. Most of the specimens in all these herbaria are from the New Zealand botanical region but, by exchanging specimens with overseas herbaria, plant specimens from other areas of the world are also accumulated. These expanded collections allow comparisons and identification of exotic plants to be made. Material is exchanged with overseas herbaria to provide specimens for comparative study, especially from the South Pacific region. The New Zealand National Herbarium Network is a member of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH).
Specimen availability
Specimens from the Allan Herbarium are available to all bona fide researchers in accordance with Herbarium Policy and Loan Regulations.
Charges may be made for plant identification and use of specimens where appropriate. For more information, or to arrange
to visit the Herbarium, please contact the Herbarium Manager,
Email 
.
Important Collections
H.H. Allan, K.W. Allison, J.B. Armstrong & J.F. Armstrong, J.Banks & D.C. Solander (some duplicates from Cook's first voyage, 1769-70), T.W.N. Beckett, G. Buelow (Tonga), G. Brownlie, U.V. Cassie, H. Carse, J. Child, P. Child, H.E. Connor, A.P. Druce, E. Edgar, E.A. Flint, D.J. Galloway, P.J. Garnock-Jones, F.G. Gibbs, D.R. Given, E.J. Godley (southern Chile), A.J. Healy, R.M. Laing, B.H. Macmillan, W. Martin, R. Mason, W. McKay, N.T. Moar, B.P.J. Molloy, L.B. Moore, B.E.V. Parham, J.W. Parham, M. J. Parsons, R.N. Patel (wood anatomy), A.W. Purdie, F.S. Reed (diatoms), W.A. Scarfe, G. Simpson, M.J.A. Simpson Bulfin, R. Spruce, W.R. Sykes, H. Talbot, J.S. Thomson, N. Wace (Tristan da Cunha, Gough Islands, South Atlantic Ocean), A. Wall, V.D. Zotov.
Databases
Several databases are associated with the Allan Herbarium. Two of the most important are the Plant Names Database and the Allan Herbarium Specimen Database.
The Plant Names Database lists over 36,000 names, including synonyms and incorrectly applied names. The database indicates which of the names are preferred for use at the Allan Herbarium (CHR), and provides information on the biostatus and the authorship of the taxa. It contains data for lichens, liverworts, hornworts, mosses, ferns, freshwater algae and seed plants in New Zealand. Additional biodiversity information on New Zealand flora provides users with a more complete list of scientific names and descriptions from recent taxonomic revisions, relevant key and bibliographic information on the use of names in publication. The database also provides vernacular and maori names, and images. Editorial work on the Plant Names Database is ongoing. As new treatments, taxa and naturalisations are published these are added to the database.
The Specimen Database is used to store and retrieve herbarium specimen information and to generate specimen labels. It is the largest database at the herbarium, currently containing over 150,000 records, or approximately 25% of the specimens in the herbarium. Specimens are added to the Database according to research and conservation priorities. Information from the Plant Names Database and parts of the Specimen Database are available online at Ngā Tipu Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants. A request to the full Specimen Database may be made online.
The All New Zealand Species Database contains a list of all vascular plant species recorded as present in New Zealand. The database currently lists records for approximately 28 000 species and 7000 synonyms. These records are derived from a wide range of sources including the Allan Herbarium, horticultural societies, nursery catalogues, botanic gardens, arboreta, and published literature. This database is mainly used by the Plant Biodiversity and Biosecurity Information Services as a tool to help determine whether a species has been recorded in New Zealand.
Other databases at the herbarium are used to assist in the management of the collection (e.g., the Loan and Cabinets databases), track ancillary collections (e.g., Type Photo Database), or record other biodiversity-related data (e.g., a bibliographic database).
All the databases are currently being upgraded to provide an integrated information system for floristic, nomenclatural, and herbarium management purposes.
For more information about any of these databases please contact the Herbarium Database Manager,
Email
.