The National Herbarium of Trinidad and Tobago (TRIN) currently houses more than 50,000 botanical specimens. The earliest specimen is a Crueger collection dated 1842.

The objectives of the TRIN herbarium:

• to maintain and expand the flora collection for Trinidad and Tobago;
• to provide an accurate plant identification service;
• to promote interest in the local flora;
• to actively disseminate information about the local flora;
• to develop its capabilities as a resource centre for botanical information;
• to provide facilities for local, regional and international researchers;
• to pursue joint projects with researchers to further these objectives.

For convenience the collection is also divided into 4 groups:

• The native flora, with samples from all the major plant divisions;
• Plants introduced into the country as ornamentals or for cultivation, or by chance;
• The West Indian collection, which includes samples from Belize, Guyana and Suriname, as well as the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, most of which were acquired by exchange;
• A special collection of Theobroma and Herrania species inherited from the Anglo-Columbian Cocoa Collecting Expedition of 1952-53 to the tributaries of the Amazon and Magdalena rivers in the Andes by staff from the I.C.T.A. Cocoa Research Scheme.

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