ROMANIAN ACADEMY
  Institute of Biology - Bucharest

BUCA Herbarium

Curator: Stefanut Sorin

 The Herbarium of the Institute of Biology from Bucharest (registered in Index Herbariorum under the acronym BUCA – from Bucharest (BUC) and Academy (A)) is a public collection, administered by the Romanian Academy (AC) trough the Institute of Biology from Bucharest (IBB).

The BUCA Herbarium consists of around 400.000 specimens and is included in the international scientific circuit, its main use being scientific research.

The Herbarium Collections include unique specimens (types) with/or exceptional patrimony value, being considered THESAURUS under the category “mobile cultural patrimony”. The majority of the specimens have unique value (endemic, rare species, herbarium sheets more than 75 years old, collections of illustrious botanists), being easily included in the category FUND of the mobile cultural patrimony.

The Herbarium has its origins in the donation (in 1953) of general and pharmacist G. Grintescu (1878-1956).

The G. Grintescu donation was initially hosted by the Botanical Garden from Bucharest, and then transferred in March 1960 to the Biology Research Centre of the Romanian Academy, located in Str. Lt. Lemnea 16, and later (in 1964) to its specially-designed and constructed current location, within the Institute of Biology of the Romanian Academy.

The collection increased each year by acquisitions, field collections during the ten geobotanical meetings, doctoral research and detailed studies of certain Romanian territories: Babadag Tableland (Podisul Babadag), Siriu Mountain (Muntele Siriu), Dunarii Gorge (Defileul Dunarii), Istrita Hill (Dealul Istrita), Piatra Mare Mountain (Muntele Piatra Mare) etc.

After the “C. Zahariadi” donation, the Herbarium was enriched with several specimens collected from Bessarabia. This collection is kept separately (in the BUCM Herbarium), without being registered at this moment. Also from Bessarabia comes the “T. Savulescu and R. Rayss” Collection, comprising around 160 packages, being only partly included in the Herbarium due to lack of space.

During the 1949-1955 period, the collaborators who compiled the Flora RPR-RSR volumes: A. Beldie, C. Burduja, S. Csuros, C. Dobrescu, G. Grintescu, I. Grintescu, M. Gusuleac, I. Morariu, A Nyarady, E. Nyarady, C. Papp (bryophytes), Ana Pauca, Sevasta Radulescu, M. Ravarut, I. Serbanescu, T. Stefureac (bryophytes), E. Topa, C. Zahariadi – gave to the Romanian Academy a valorous, elaborated and interesting material (around 13.500 herbarium sheets), collected from the initiative of acad. T. Savulescu.

Later (1961) a part (187 packages) of the “I. Prodan” Collection has been acquisitioned. The last acquisition was the “I. Serbanescu” Collection (1992), comprising 279 packages, that, because of the vast territory covered by the collector throughout the years, contains several samples that are not maximised according to their real scientific value.

The BUCA Herbarium constitutes an important collection of vascular plants deposited in 87 armoires (each with 24 compartments with 50-100 herbarium sheets, around 160.000 sheets in total), containing the “I. Serbanescu” Collection, consisting around 40.000-80.000 herbarium sheets (out of which 8.921 have been determined, cleaned, labelled, numbered and ordered) and kept in 279 packages, the “C. Zahariadi” collection, and over 300 boxes and packages with another 30.000-70.000 herbarium sheets (out of which 170 packages contain determined or partially undetermined material). In total, the BUCA Herbarium holds around 400.000 herbarium sheets, but a more exact number will be obtained after the end of the inventory (up-to-date 165.577 herbarium sheets with vascular plans have been registered).

In this Herbarium, that contains several holotypes, rare, vulnerable and endangered species, besides the great majority of vascular plants there is also an important collection of bryophytes collected all across the country (over 20.000 samples), that should constitute the object of a separate collection which might be later registered as a new herbarium (up-to-date 5.044 bryophyte samples have been registered).

Considering the fact that Bucharest lost the largest and most important collection from Romania during the bombings from 1944, the BUCA Herbarium is now the second largest collection of this type from Romania (after the one from Cluj - CL).

The contact information for the Herbarium of the Institute of Biology – Romanian Academy has been updated in Index Herbariorum, and is accessible online at http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/IndexHerbariorum.asp and http://sweetgum.nybg.org/ih/.

INDEX HERBARIORUM

Herbarium Details:

 Staff 

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Last modified: 11/23/08