Explore/Botany
Botany
The centerpiece of the Botany Department is Herbarium Pacificum — the largest and most comprehensive collection of Hawaiian and tropical Pacific Island plant specimens in the world.
700,000+
plant, algal, and fungal specimens
225,000
specimens from Hawai‘i
210,000
from Pacific Oceania
~12,000
type specimens
Herbarium Pacificum (BISH)
Founded in 1889, Herbarium Pacificum holds specimens of all of the native, alien, and cultivated plants in Hawai‘i — including many “last-known” collections of the 89 Hawaiian species pushed to extinction in the last two centuries — alongside a reference collection of over 125,000 specimens from around the world. In 1992, the Hawai‘i State Legislature designated the herbarium as the primary repository for plant vouchers in the State.
The collections include angiosperms (381,400), algae (82,200), ferns (45,900), mosses (13,600), fungi (8,300), liverworts (5,800), gymnosperms (2,700), lichens (2,400), wood, and fossils. Among the earliest collections ever made in Hawai‘i are those of David Nelson, naturalist on Captain Cook’s third voyage, and the Tanager, Mangareva, and Whitney expeditions.
The collections database
Search 545,392 Botany specimens
Records from 1754 to today, drawn from the Museum’s published data.
IsotypeDendrobium caliculi-mentum
BISH 100205
Stevens, P.F.; Veldkamp, J.F., 1972
New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
IsotypePoa pulviniformis
BISH 100228
Stevens, P.F.; Veldkamp, J.F., 1972
New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
IsotypeMyristica crassipes
BISH 100247
Stevens, P.F.; Veldkamp, J.F., 1972
New Guinea, Papua New Guinea
HolotypeAchyranthes splendens
BISH 11566
Fosberg, F.R., 1935
Lānaʻi
TypePritchardia lowreyana
BISH 115849
Caum, E.L., 1927
Oʻahu
TypePritchardia lowreyana
BISH 115850
Caum, E.L., 1927
Oʻahu
IsotypeBobea gaudichaudii
BISH 11790
Rock, J.F.C., 1910
Molokaʻi
IsotypeEragrostis paupera
BISH 119049
Mann, H.; Brigham, W.T., 1864
Oʻahu
Research
12 publications
Papers, reports and books by Botany staff, with the PDF where there is one — readable in place and open to questions.
All Botany publications ›2025
Long delays in identification and publication of naturalized species: a case study of introduced grasses in Hawai‘iFaccenda, K., and C.C. Daehler · *NeoBiota*
2025
A reevaluation of the nomenclature of Hawaiian AcaciaMorden, C.W., and K. Faccenda · Bishop Museum Occasional Papers
2025
Liverworts (Marchantiophyta) of the Kauaʻi summits, Hawaiʻi, with two new state records and five new island recordsJudziewicz, E.J., K. Faccenda, and A.V. Friere · Bishop Museum Occasional Papers
2025
Amaranthus pakai (Amaranthaceae), a new critically endangered species from the Hawaiian Islands.Faccenda, K., N.D. Bayón, K. Waselkov, and R.W. Hobdy · Novon
2025
Updates to the Hawaiian grass flora: Part 4.Faccenda, K. · Bishop Museum Occasional Papers
2025
From the pasture to the present: the history of grass introductions in Hawai‘i.Faccenda, K. · Pacific Science
From the herbarium
Research
A working herbarium
The herbarium is not just a place to preserve plant specimens — it is a place of active research. Museum botanists study the evolution, ecology, and ethnobotany of Pacific plant life, assist state and federal agencies with plant identification, and have produced foundational works from the Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai‘i to Isabella Aiona Abbott’s La‘au Hawai‘i and the marine algal floras of the Hawaiian Islands. It is equally likely the herbarium holds unidentified specimens representing species currently unknown to science.
Databases & checklists
Deeper tools kept by the department itself.
plantsofhawaii.org
Plants of Hawai‘i
Current taxonomy, specimen images, and data for the Museum’s botanical collections
macroalgae.org
Macroalgal Herbarium Portal
Algae herbarium records
pbs.bishopmuseum.org
Papuan Plants Project
Checklists, collections, images, and bibliography for New Guinea plants
data.bishopmuseum.org
Invasive Algae of Hawai‘i
Invasive algae database
keys.lucidcentral.org
Hawaiian Kalo
An identification guide for taro in the Hawaiian Islands
Department staff
4 people
- TG
Timothy Gallaher, Ph.D.
Botanist, Curator of Botany
timothy.gallaher@bishopmuseum.org - BK
Barbara Kennedy
Collection Manager
808.848.4181
bkennedy@bishopmuseum.org - CI
Clyde Imada
Research Specialist III
808.848.4175
cimada@bishopmuseum.org - KB
Kelsey Brock, M.S.
Research Specialist
kelsey.brock@bishopmuseum.org
Visiting researchers
Herbarium Pacificum is open to visiting researchers by appointment, 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday (except public holidays). Collections are available for loan to qualified institutions via the Natural Sciences Collections Access and Use Request Form at bishopmuseum.org/collections-access. Tours of the collections are available upon request.
bkennedy@bishopmuseum.orgBe a part of our story
Celebrate the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific with a gift to Bishop Museum. As a partner in the Museum’s work, you help sustain the collections, the research and the knowledge behind every record on this site.
