Purposes
(last update: May 2025)
FI includes a number of sub-collections, either open to further improvement, or closed (""historical herbaria""); each of them is listed as a separate entry in GRSciColl (https://scientific-collections.gbif.org/), where further details are provided. The largermost of these sub-collections are the General Herbarium (FI-GEN), which incorporated the Herbarium libycum (15,000 specimens), the Philip Barker Webb's herbarium (Herbarium webbianum, FI-W), the Odoardo Beccari's Malesian herbarium (Herbarium beccarianum, FI-HB), the Micheli-Targioni herbarium (Herbarium michelianum, FI-M), the Rodolfo Emilio Giuseppe Pichi Sermolli's herbarium (Herbarium pichianum, FI-PS) and the Odoardo Beccari's palms herbarium (Herbarium palmarum, FI-HP). The Botanical collections also includes a number of important, historical herbaria, such as the Andrea Cesalpino's and the Tuscan anonymous' herbaria (FI-CES and FI-MER, respectively, both dating backs to 16th century), and several ancillary collections (seeds, fruits, wood samples etc.). Due to the historical significance and uniqueness of most collections, physical loan is only possible for a limited number of FI-GEN and the ancillary collections specimens. A large, comprehensive digitization project led by the Padova University, thanks to the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) initiative and through the Next Generation EU and Italian National Resistance and Resilience Programme (PNRR) fundings, has started in March 2024 into the herbarium rooms, aiming to the complete databasing and imaging of FI and other important Italian herbaria.
