Description

The Australian Tropical Herbarium (CNS) is a joint venture between James Cook University (JCU), the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR) - jointly owned by CSIRO and Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC), and the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management.

CNS is a new purpose-built herbarium formed in 2008 as an amalgamation of the following collections:

• QRS - The Australian National Herbarium - previously housed in Atherton.
• MBA - Queensland Herbarium - previously housed in Mareeba.
• JCT (in part) - a part of the James Cook University Herbarium - the Townsville collection.

The Australian Tropical Herbarium (CNS) serves as both the north Queensland node of the Queensland Herbarium (BRI) and the north Australian node of the Australian National Herbarium (CANB).

Statistics taken (October 2010) from:

http://www.chah.gov.au/chah/resources/herbaria/cns.html (CHAH Last updated: June 2010)

The collection was established in 1971 and continues to the present.

Taxonomic range

Existing collections of all vascular plant groups. Developing collections of algae, bryophytes and fungi.

Kingdoms covered include: Fungi and Plantae.

Geographic range

Australia 's tropics, especially northeastern Australian rainforests; related plant groups of Papua New Guinea, Pacific, and southeast Asia.

Australian states covered include: Queensland.

Number of specimens in the collection

The estimated number of specimens in the Australian Tropical Herbarium is 160,000.

Of these 160,000 are databased. This represents 100.0 % of the collection.

Click the Records & Statistics tab to access those database records that are available through the atlas.

Sub-collections

The Australian Tropical Herbarium contains these significant collections:

• Atherton Forestry Office in 1994
• University of Queensland Herbarium (BRIU) - rainforest specimens
• Queensland Herbarium - Mareeba (MBA) - MBA in 2007
• Australian National Herbarium - Atherton (QRS) - QRS in 2007
• Australian Rain Forest Tree Collection
• Australian Rain Forest Vine Collection
• Australian Rain Forest Seedlings
• Alick Dockrill orchid collection
• Wet collection of rain forest species mainly flowers & fruits - c. 16000 jars
• DNA / frozen tissue bank of tropical Australian flora - c. 2500 samples
• North Queensland Naturalists' club (CAIRNS) - Incorporated into QRS in 1971, includes the collections of Hugo Flecker
• James Cook University Herbarium (JCT) - In part in 2007

last updated: 2011-04-12 14:27:26.0