Publication Date:
2024-04-08
Description:
Historic herbaria can provide a wealth of information on a diversity of topics, including the past occurrence
of plants, their abundance, names and uses. However, 16th and 17th century herbaria are rare and very fragile,
and can best be studied after digitization. The collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands,
contains two book herbaria by Jacob Breyne (1637–1697) of Danzig (presently Gdańsk, Poland). These herbaria,
dated 1659 and 1673, contain a total of 105 specimens in various states of intactness, and with or without original
labels. The identity of the specimens in the Leiden Breyne herbaria was not completely assessed previously. Here
we discuss the taxa represented within these two historic herbaria as well as the information contained in the
handwritten texts within them. The two Breyne herbaria combined were found to contain 62 species, representing
24 plant families. Both herbaria contain several species now rare around Gdańsk, including two species currently
considered regionally extinct (Swertia perennis (Gentianaceae) and Dactylorhiza viridis (Orchidaceae)). Labels with
the specimens give a range of information on the collecting locations, ecology, abundance and/or use of the species.
The Leiden Breyne herbaria reveal changes in the flora of northern Poland over the course of three centuries, as
well as pre-Linnaean nomenclature, historic uses of plants and international correspondence between scientists.
Keywords:
Plant Science
;
Ecology
;
Evolution
;
Behavior and Systematics
;
Gdańsk
;
historic herbaria
;
history of botany
;
Poland
;
Pomerania
Repository Name:
National Museum of Natural History, Netherlands
Type:
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Format:
application/pdf
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