Background
The National Herbarium of the Netherlands (NHN) was founded in 1999 as a decentral merger of the three main university herbaria in the Netherlands, namely the Rijksherbarium Leiden (founded 1829), the Utrecht University Herbarium (1816) and the Herbarium Vadense (1896).
The NHN functions under a Mutual Agreement signed by the universities in which they guarantee a basic financial input for teaching and research in systematics. Additionally, the NHN receives a subsidy from the Dutch Government (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science) in recognition of the national and international value of its expertise and collections.
With a collection of close to over 5.5 million specimens, the NHN is one of the largest herbaria in the world. All ca. 50,000 type-specimens have been made available on internet. The three libraries of the NHN are a unique resource covering botanical and mycological literature from the 16th century to the present.
- Utrecht herbarium
In 2008 the Utrecht University implemented the 2005 decision to withdraw from the NHN, to cease all collection-related activities and to close its herbarium. Later it was agreed that the Utrecht herbarium collections will be relocated to Leiden.
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