BOTANY
Grenoble's Museum Herbarium :
Access to collections
The existence of an herbarium within the Cabinet of Natural Sciences has warn since 1801, among the oldest shares, those from Pierre Liottard, botanist from Grenoble (1728-1796).
The collection today includes mainly herbariums but also some reduced specific collections : woods from the world, dried fruits, mushrooms in alcohol, and various botanical anatomical models.
This herbarium includes close to two hundred different collections, with various sizes, some referring to the scientific plan (presence of scientific references species or types), historical collections, and collections of regional references.
About 300.000 herbarium parts (one part is constitued of one or several dried species with a label mentioning data like the scientific name, the date and place where collected, the name of the collector…) are assembled within the botanical reserve.
Some of those herbariums were realized by illustrious botanists, like Dominique Villars, Casimir Arvet-Touvet…The associated documentary collection,( manuscripts, flora,correspondence…) confers an exceptional value.
These herbariums specially covers the French Alps sector and the Rhone-Alps sector, but also the rest of France.
The present vegetals are mainly Tracheophytes (known as superior plants). Bryophytes (moss), algae and mushrooms, whose lichens, are in smaller numbers.
A page from the herbarium in bundles of Pierre Liottard (1728-1796).
A volume of the bound herbarium given by Dominique Villars (1745-1814) to his pupil Simon-Jude Honnorat (1783-1852), but produced by Dominique Chaix (1730-1799).
Online Herbarium Program :
For the moment, only the herbaria of Dominique Villars are put online. These are the tracheophytes herbarium, the bryophytes herbarium and the herbarium of "Histoire des plantes de Grande Chartreuse" made in 1775.
Then gradually come the nomenclatural types (in addition to those of the Villars herbarium) of the Museum herbarium and certain specific collections.
The search for data, particular specimens or any other nature must therefore be done by contacting the botanical collections manager, who will ensure that the most complete information possible is transmitted.
These collections constitute a historical heritage, but also a still current scientific tool for describing and classifying plant species, , studying the evolution of their distribution and their populations, writing floras...
To go further...
Catalog of the Herbarium of the Grenoble Museum
This state of knowledge of the herbarium of the Grenoble Museum aims to present in a concise manner to botanists, and to anyone who may be interested, the herbaria and other botanical collections (excluding live specimens) preserved by the Grenoble Museum. (in french for the moment).
List of publications citing the GRM herbarium
The Herbarium of the Natural history Museum ofGrenoble is regularly consulted by botanists, amateurs or professionals, as part of their research. These consultations are done remotely (sending photos, answering questions about the specimens), or by visiting the herbarium.
This research gives rise to publications in scientific journals, in which typifications are sometimes written (designation of a reference specimen, or nomenclatural type, associated with a scientific name).
The work "l'Herbier Dominique Villars, témoin de la flore du Dauphiné" downloadable on line
This work written by Vincent Poncet in 1999 is a reference, for those who want to discover the work of Dominique Villars and his herbarium.
Logically, some aspects have evolved since this date :
- Selected names have changed, as well as nomenclatural statuses;
- In 2009 the bound herbarium "Histoire des plantes de la Grande Chartreuse" created in 1775 by D. Villars was acquired by the Natural history Museum of Grenoble;
- In 2012 an inventory was carried out - without redetermination - of the bryophytes herbarium of D. Villars;
- In 2016, 5 sheets of the herbarium were found, mixed in another herbarium since 1960's, certainly following a taxonomic study;
- In 2018 the Museum acquired D. Villars' personal copy of this "Histoire des plantes de Dauphiné", containing numerous drawings and annotations.
(Re)Discover the history and work of this explorer of the flora of the Dauphiné ! .
Herbarium Jules Revol - Saint Julien du Serre (Ardèche, France)
Jules Revol (1860-1928) participated in the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris by presenting this small bound herbarium called "60 plants from my commune Saint-Julien du-Serre collected and determined with my students for the study of botany ".
