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The National Herbarium of Seychelles


The National Herbarium of Seychelles came into existence in the early 1960's. The first collection contained specimens from Mr Charles Jeffrey (1961), who initially was collecting for the KEW herbarium but graciously left duplicate specimens behind. In addition, precious specimens dating from as far back as1840 have been added to our collection thanks to the good collaborations with the "Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris". In the 1980s, Dr Francis Friedmann and Dr Susan Anne Robertson supplemented this small debut collection by first identifying the main plant species of the Seychelles. Subsequently they respectively collected extensively across local plant families. A special mention is made to Dr Bruno Senterre, who from 2008 onwards, has done the bulk of additional collections and identification across other plant groups.

The National Herbarium is presently housed in the Natural History Museum, in Victoria, the capital city of Seychelles. It comprises a collection of around 5000 specimens of flowering plants (Dicots and Monocots) and ferns. There are 638 species of Dicots, out of a total of 973 species to be found in the Seychelles. Monocots are represented by 163 species out of a total of 366 and 100 species of ferns out of 127.Out of a total of 237 native Dicots, the herbarium collection is housing 196 species, 92 out of 132 native monocots and 90 out of 110 native fern species.

In 2012, In order to properly record information about all the plants present in Seychelles, a local civil society, the Plant Conservation Action group (PCA) joined forces with the Natural History Museum to work on a two-year programme, which became known as 'The Herbarium Project'.

The project had four main aims which included:

  • Redeveloping the Seychelles National Herbarium so that it becomes an active part of the Natural History Museum: this included re-organising the herbarium, making new plant collections, and providing training in herbarium management.
  • Giving young local scientists a chance to develop their botanical knowledge and to provide local expertise in plant identification: this included field and herbarium studies and developing links with international herbaria and research institutions.
  • Creating a database of plant knowledge, using many sources of information: including information from historical specimens, books and scientific papers, and also local knowledge.
  • Developing ways to involve the Seychellois community in the work of the herbarium: by providing opportunities to participate in the development of a digital "Plant Gallery" that will be useful to anyone interested in plants ; by creating education and awareness materials whereby local people can know more about our plants e.g. a film, a photo competition and interactive exhibitions.

In conclusion, the Herbarium also houses a collection of Bryophytes, fungus and Marine algae, but these still need correctly identified, databased and properly classified within our main collection. We plan to hopefully achieve these goals within the next two years as there are plans to relocate the herbarium in more spacious accommodations in the next month or so.