The Chrysler Herbarium and Mycological Collection

The Chrysler Herbarium at Rutgers University is the largest and most important research herbarium in New Jersey (USA). It was established in 1925, and celebrates its 100 year anniversary in 2025 (see Events). The herbarium is administered under the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences , and is the botanical natural history museum of Rutgers University. It is a public and permanent resource of material and information for scientists, educators, conservationists, and the general public. The herbarium regularly hosts pre-arranged tours and visits for researchers and classes, as well as providing access to materials and data both online and in-person (see Contact Us for more information).

The collection includes over 200,000 scientific specimens of plants, algae, and fungi from about 1,000 families, 5,000 genera and 23,000 species (see Collections Overview). The botanical and taxonomic groups included in the collections are angiosperms (flowering plants), gymnosperms (conifers), bryophytes (mosses, hornworts, and liverworts), mycology and lichenology (fungi and lichens), phycology (algae), and pteridophytes (ferns and fern allies, plus clubmosses). Herbarium specimens serve a multitude of important scientific uses, and are also used widely in the arts, humanities, and social sciences (see The value of herbaria and their collections).

The Chrysler Herbarium collection is fully digitized (databased, imaged, and partially georeferenced) and available globally in online portals organized by organismal group (see Collections Overview). Chrysler Herbarium is the dedicated depository for research vouchers from plant-based pharmaceutical, phylogenetic, ecological, horticultural, and agricultural research at Rutgers University. We also welcome donations of scientific material from other activities and sources. For potential donations of materials, please Contact Us.

The Chrysler Herbarium is home to a nationally well-known internship program, the Herbarium Army, which has trained over 220 undergraduates and other volunteers in herbarium curation and digitization methods since 2016.

Several long-term and large outreach programs in biodiversity science and public engagement are also run by Chrysler Herbarium on the iNaturalist website, for example the Personal Bioblitz and Fauna and Flora of Rutgers University, and for all organismal groups, the Invasive Species of New Jersey and New Jersey Biodiversity (see Research).

Acknowledgments:
Chrysler Herbarium and its endeavors have recently been supported by many grants from National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Beneficia Foundation, as well as through gifts from many generous private donors (Thank you!). Substantial research and educational support was provided through the following federal awards: NIH/FIC U01TW006674-03; NSF-DEB 317612, 1502788, 1601101, 1802305; USDA NJ17602, 17142, NJ17165). Digitization of lichens, bryophytes, and algae were accomplished through NSF funding and in close collaboration with The New York Botanical Garden; for vascular plants with Morris Arboretum and the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University.