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The digitized collections of Chrysler Herbarium are indexed and available through GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), iDigBio (Integrated Digitized Biocollections), the Mid-Atlantic Herbarium Consortium, Pteridophyte Collections Consortium, The Consortium of Bryophyte Herbaria, Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria, Mycology Collections Portal, and The Algae Herbarium Portal. Chrysler Herbarium is part of networks of herbaria participating in Index Herbariorum. The international herbarium abbreviation for Chrysler Herbarium is CHRB.
Every specimen is linked to a particular place (the locality), person (the collector), and time (the date of collecting), and thereby provides unique and irreplaceable snapshots in historical time and geography of local biodiversity. Chrysler Herbarium is a depository for scientific collections from NJDEP, Rutgers University students and researchers, local ecological and biodiversity inventories, research projects related to New Jersey, and also acquire specimens through gift exchanges with other herbaria and museums around the world.
These are dried and preserved specimens collected by scientists, naturalists, and students over the last 150 years. The collection is worldwide in scope, with many specimens from New Jersey (35%) and the United States (68%). We have small special collections of frozen tissues for DNA, seeds, and ethnobotanical samples. The collection includes rare and endangered species, type material of new species, voucher specimens from ethnobotanical, chemical, and plant breeding research, historical collections, and many unique specimens not present anywhere else.
The Chrysler Herbarium has grown through the donation and/or inclusion of the following herbarium collections over the years:
- Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Botanical Club (duplicates)
- Columbia College
- Dimmick Family Collection
- Drew University Herbarium
- Dr. Erika Frank’s Collection (ca. 1600 specimens)
- Dr. Ilnicki’s Weed collection of Cook College
- Dr. James D. Montgomery’s Fern Collection (5295 specimens)
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- New Jersey College for Women’s Herbarium
- New Jersey Geological Survey Collection
- Pinelands Field Station Reference Collection
- Princeton University Herbarium (3000 specimens in 1948, 4000 in 1963)
- Rutgers College Herbarium
- Rutgers-Camden Herbarium (RCAM, 10 000 specimens in 2001)
- Rutgers-Cook College Plant Pathology Collection (RUTPP)
- Rutgers-Douglass College Herbarium (RUT, 10 500 specimens in 1977)
- Rutgers-Newark Herbarium (NCAS, 2000 specimens)
- Ryan Schmidt’s New Jersey Weeds Collection
- Willowwood Arboretum’s Herbarium
Table of number of specimens (as of 15 July, 2025) at Chrysler Herbarium, Rutgers University (below):
| Taxon Group | Total # of Curated Specimens | # of Databased Specimens | # of Imaged Specimens | % Digitized | # of Families | # of Genera | # of species | Backlog (appr.), not yet curated |
| Seed Plants | 135,000 | 134,502 | 124,397 | 92% | 326 | 3015 | 11,603 | 30,000 |
| Fungi | 34,941 | 34,941 | 34,939 | 100% | 228 | 658 | 5,901 | 200 |
| Ferns and Lycophytes | 16,634 | 16,634 | 15,439 | 93% | 51 | 288 | 2,268 | 1,000 |
| Bryophytes | 7,271 | 6,864 | 6,829 | 99% | 107 | 305 | 1,029 | 500 |
| Algae | 5,914 | 5,914 | 5,879 | 99% | 210 | 532 | 1,322 | 0 |
| Lichens | 3,211 | 3,211 | 3,062 | 95% | 78 | 183 | 652 | 500 |
| Totals | 202,971 | 202,066 | 190,545 | 97% | 1,000 | 4,981 | 22,775 | 32,200 |
Table of geographic origin of collections (as of 15 July, 2025) at Chrysler Herbarium, Rutgers University (below):
| Taxon Group | From United States | From New Jersey |
| Seed Plants | 76% | 45% |
| Fungi | 31% | 4% |
| Ferns and Lycophytes | 64% | 29% |
| Bryophytes | 79% | 24% |
| Algae | 77% | 7% |
| Lichens | 82% | 15% |
| Total | 68% | 21% |