The centerpiece of the Bishop Museum Botany department is our herbarium. Founded in 1889, the Herbarium Pacificum (herbarium code: BISH) holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of Hawaiian and tropical Pacific Island plant specimens including over 225,000 from Hawai‘i and 210,000 from Pacific Oceania. The herbarium also features an important reference collection of over 125,000 specimens representing species from around the world which is particularly important for identifying new plant introductions to the islands.

In 1992, the Hawai’i State Legislature designated the herbarium as the primary repository for plant vouchers in the State. Specimens of all of the native, alien, and cultivated plants in Hawai‘i can be found at the Bishop Museum, including many “last-known” collections of the 89 Hawaiian species pushed to extinction in the last two centuries. Undoubtedly, it holds further species that will never again be seen alive in nature. However, it is equally likely that the herbarium holds unidentified specimens which represent species currently unknown to science. We also receive many duplicate specimens collected from throughout the Pacific from other herbaria. The breadth and excellence of our collections make us the go-to herbarium for anyone studying Hawaiian or Pacific botany.

Owing to the legacy of Bishop Museum’s past staff and researchers, the Museum is also a historically significant resource for botanical knowledge. Examples of some of the earliest collections ever made in Hawaiʻi are located at the Museum—among them are those made by David Nelson, naturalist on Captain Cook’s third voyage to the Pacific, and the Tanager, Mangareva, and Whitney expeditions. BISH also holds nearly 12,000 type specimens.

The mission of the Botany department is to:

1. Maintain the collection of over 700,000 living and preserved plant, algal, and fungal specimens.
2. Curate records of the occurrence and distribution of native and introduced plants, algae and fungi species throughout Hawaii and the tropical Pacific island region.
3. Assist with the identification of unknown plants for state and federal agencies, and other conservation or research organizations.
4. Examine how plants have dispersed, adapted and evolved.
5. Investigate the relationships between people, plants and culture.
6. Educate the public and the next generation of botanists and plant scientists.

Major contributions of the Botany department and affiliated researchers include:

• Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai‘i (by Warren L. Wagner, Derral R. Herbst, and S.H. Sohmer)
• La‘au Hawai‘i: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants (by Isabella Aiona Abbott)
• Hawaiian Native and Naturalized Vascular Plants Checklist (by Clyde T. Imada)
• A Tropical Garden Flora (by George W. Staples and Derral R. Herbst)
• Survey of invasive or potentially invasive cultivated plants in Hawai‘i (by George W. Staples, Derral Herbst, and Clyde T. Imada)
• Hawai‘i’s Ferns and Fern Allies (by Daniel D. Palmer)
• Marine Green and Brown Algae of the Hawaiian Islands (by Isabella Aiona Abbott and John M. Huisman)
• Marine Red Algae of the Hawaiian Islands (by Isabella Aiona Abbott)
• Bibliographic Catalogue of the Marine Benthic Algae in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) (by Roy Tsuda)
• Numerous other books and scientific articles