Herbarium collections shape our understanding of Earth's flora and are crucial for addressing global change issues. Their formation, however, is not free from sociopolitical issues of immediate relevance. Despite increasing efforts addressing issues of representation and colonialism in natural history collections, herbaria have received comparatively less attention. While it has been noted that the majority of plant specimens are housed in the Global North, the extent and magnitude of this disparity have not been quantified. Here we examine the colonial legacy of botanical collections, analysing 85,621,930 specimen records and assessing survey responses from 92 herbarium collections across 39 countries. We find an inverse relationship between where plant diversity exists in nature and where it is housed in herbaria. Such disparities persist across physical and digital realms despite overt colonialism ending over half a century ago. We emphasize the need for acknowledging the colonial history of herbarium collections and implementing a more equitable global paradigm for their collection, curation and use.

Bell Museum University of Minnesota St Paul MN USA

Botany Section Naturalis Biodiversity Center Leiden the Netherlands

Botany Unit Finnish Museum of Natural History University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland

Central Regional Centre Botanical Survey of India Allahabad India

Conservatory and Botanic Gardens of Geneva Geneva Switzerland

Deccan Regional Centre Botanical Survey of India Hyderabad India

Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions Western Australian Herbarium Kensington Western Australia Australia

Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science and Technology Kochi University Kochi Japan

Department of Biological Sciences Purdue University West Lafayette IN USA

Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research University of Vienna Vienna Austria

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Botany National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution Washington DC USA

Department of Botany National Museum of Nature and Science Tsukuba Japan

Department of Environmental Biology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy

Department of Geography Florida State University Tallahassee FL USA

Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Harvard University Herbaria Harvard University Cambridge MA USA

Department of Plant Sciences University of Oxford Oxford UK

East African Herbarium National Museums of Kenya Nairobi Kenya

Ecology and Genetics Research Unit University of Oulu Oulu Finland

Field Museum Chicago IL USA

Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life Hiroshima University Hiroshima Japan

Harvard University Herbaria Cambridge MA USA

Hattori Botanical Laboratory Nichinan Japan

Herbario San Marcos Museo de Historia Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Lima Peru

Herbarium Bogoriense Research Center for Biosystematics and Evolution National Research and Innovation Agency Cibinong Indonesia

Herbarium Collections and Department of Botany Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Herbarium Patavinum University of Padua Padua Italy

Herbier Louis Marie Université Laval Québec City Québec Canada

Herbier LY FR BioEEnVis Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 Lyon France

Hungarian Natural History Museum Budapest Hungary

Institute of Biological Sciences Maria Curie Skłodowska University Lublin Poland

Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Průhonice Czech Republic

Institute of Botany Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences Tashkent Uzbekistan

Institute of Integrative Biology ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland

Instituto de Botánica Darwinion San Isidro Argentina

Instituto Experimental Jardin Botánico 'Dr Tobías Lasser' Avenida Salvador Allende Ciudad Universitaria Caracas Venezuela

Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal Córdoba Argentina

Komarov Botanical Institute Russian Academy of Sciences Saint Petersburg Russian Federation

Meise Botanic Garden Meise Belgium

Missouri Botanical Garden St Louis MO USA

Miyajima Natural Botanical Garden Hiroshima University Hiroshima Japan

National Herbarium of Ukraine M G Kholodny Institute of Botany National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Kyiv Ukraine

National Institute of Ecology Seocheon South Korea

National Parks Board Singapore Botanic Gardens Singapore Singapore

Natural History Museum University of Oslo Oslo Norway

Naturhistorisches Museum Wien Vienna Austria

New York Botanical Garden Bronx NY USA

Purdue Center for Plant Biology Purdue University West Lafayette IN USA

Rocky Mountain Herbarium University of Wyoming Laramie WY USA

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Surrey UK

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Melbourne Victoria Australia

School of Animal Plant and Environmental Sciences University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg South Africa

Sikkim Himalayan Regional Centre Botanical Survey of India Gangtok India

South African National Biodiversity Institute Pretoria South Africa

South China Botanical Garden Herbarium Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China

Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns Botanische Staatssammlung München München Germany

Universidad Central de Venezuela Caracas Venezuela

Universidad Nacional de Colombia Bogotá Colombia

University of Florida Herbarium Florida Museum Gainesville FL USA

University of Oulu Botanical Museum Oulu Finland

University of Washington Herbarium Burke Museum Seattle WA USA

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Nat Hum Behav. 2023 Jul;7(7):1042-1043. doi: 10.1038/s41562-023-01622-9. PubMed

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