Herbarium

About the University of Sheffield Herbaria:

The Sheffield University herbarium is a collection of ~12,000 dried plant samples spanning 170 years of floral history across the British Isles and beyond. This underused and undervalued resource had the potential to be used in active research as well as act as a historical bank but had falling into disrepair. To rectify this, a digital catalogue was created by then MBiolSci student Rosa Dunkley, increasing access of the collection for use by researchers, as well as enabling active donations. This collection has also been curated and maintained, with degraded specimens cleaned and remounted. New donations have also been mounted and recorded. This has proved important to the university in improving understanding of Plant Science and the place of herbaria within science, a much-maligned resource at teaching level.

The catalogue documents the contents of the British collection thus far. This data is now accessible by permission of the School of Biosciences through work by a voluntary herbarium curator. This catalogue is to locate specimens within the collection, provide geographical data in understanding species distribution and map travels of important botanical collectors. You can view a summary of our collection from our INDEX HERBARIORUM page.

Physical access to the samples is encouraged and can be done via contacting biosciences@sheffield.ac.uk or gavin.thomas@sheffield.ac.uk and can be granted by the School of Biosciences. Loaning forms should be submitted if material is being removed from the herbarium and donations can be submitted to the School of Biosciences along with the donations form found on ORDA.

Typical herbarium specimen

What is a Herbaria?

Herbaria are collections of dried plants, often preserved as pressed specimens mounted on paper and stored according to their genus and species names within a collection. Herbaria also store identification vouchers crucial to active Plant Science research; plants collected in the field for analysis must be retained for follow up research and peer review if necessary. These centres of research and education exist as holding places for dried plants providing the opportunity for accessing plants across various environments for research.

To increase accessibility, many herbaria now also have a digital catalogue. This can be used virtually to access biogeographic information, dates and species type. Whilst improving distanced understanding of collections, digitisation also improves ease of locating specific specimens within collection for loaning by curators.

Portion of our herbarium. Cabinets corresponds to where the flora was obtained from and specimens are grouped by accession number.

Importance of Herbaria collections

Plant preservation has also opened doors for molecular taxonomic research using next generational sequencing of preserved specimens in evolutionary studies and samples retain indicators of atmospheric pollution. Herbaria samples are also often used in ethnobotanical studies, highlighting people’s relationship with plants and samples are studied to understand changing phylogeny in climate change. Herbaria also act as banks of biogeographic information regarding the species diversity and distribution of plants. This data is used to map previous distributions according to date and area and can be used to understand landscape change. As an important ecological resource that can be used in rewilding and rare species mapping, an herbarium provides insight into previous populations enabling the avoidance of shifting baseline syndrome and protecting biodiversity.

In our herbarium we contain preserved specimens, seed banks, photo albums and information keys/books.
We also keep maintenance and repairs kits with the herbarium alongside dataloggers to review temperature and humidity.

Digitisation project (September 2023 - June 2024)

Kane Dibb, the Digitisation and Communications intern at the Alfred Denny Museum developed a step-by-step procedure on how to digitise the specimens within the University Library Digitisation Suite. They worked with Emily Piepgrass, a Zoology BSc undergraduate, to trial the procedure with a portion of Miss Comber’s collection from around the Yorkshire and Humber area. Over the months of April and May the pair successfully barcoded, then imaged 71 herbarium sheets using a camera and copystand. Barcoding links the specimen with its image and associated metadata – making it easier to locate the correct specimen within the digital catalogue.

Through digitising specimens herbaria can increase the accessibility of their collections for remote research. Providing virtual access to those unable to visit in person and allowing digital analysis of the specimens which can be used in ethnobotanical studies, understanding how floral diversity has changed over time and other research. Digital herbaria can also improve the longevity of specimens by reducing handling and movement of specimens which risks damage, as well as providing records to document ageing of the specimen (e.g. fading colours) and provide a 'back-up' copy if anything happens to the physical plant.

From a public facing side, virtual access to herbaria can also increase awareness of the importance of herbaria and foster an interest in botanical collections.

Equipment set up for digitisation featuring a camera and copystand with lights and a template to place the herbaria sheets on (left), a computer, barcode scanner and 2 monitors (right). Images were edited in Adobe Lightroom.

View the digitised specimens here:

Who was Miss Comber?

In the Herbarium 766 specimens are attributed to ‘Miss Comber’ as the collector making her the second largest contributor.

Based on collection dates, notes, historical context and links with 'J Comber' it is likely that Miss Comber is Ethel Annie Comber (born Lambert) c.1871 - 1923.

Ethel Comber was married to James Comber, 1866-1953 the Head Gardner of Nymans Estate in West Sussex. They both shared a passion for plant collecting, and contributed to the same personal collection, often mounting their collected plants (of the same species) on a shared sheet.

In some cases the recorded date + habitats of collection for specific species match up- suggesting that they could have ventured on collection trips together.

While a local of Sussex, Miss Comber collected plants from across the UK from Mullion, Cornwall to Loch Etive, Scotland. She collected plants from a number of habitats from roadsides to rivers.

The River Nidd runs through three collection sites: Pateley Bridge, Ripley and Knaresborough. A number of specimens collected in those locations share the collection date of July 1901 suggesting Miss Comber may have collected all in one trip following the river.

The Comber Family

The Comber family is full of horticultural specialists following in the footsteps of J ‘James’ Comber is the largest contributor to the herbarium with over 1300 catalogued specimens. His wife Ethel being the second.

James' and Ethel's son, Harold Frederick Comber, was a well-known horticulturalist and plant collector specialising in the study of lilies Lilum sp. He discovered and named a number of new hybrid species, as well as rearing many strains of his own such as the Green Magic Group.

Harold’s 3 children continued their family legacy and all studied various aspects of botany. His youngest daughter Mary Comber-Miles took up a botanical illustration scholarship at the Cambridge School of Art and went on to become the resident botanical artist at the University of British Columbia for the VanDusen Botanical Garden.

Interactive map:

As part of the digitisation project the specimens were georeferenced using collection notes, locality data and historical maps to estimate where the plant was likely collected. They have been added to a map using ArcGIS and coloured according to their plant Order. Click each datapoint to bring up a pop-up with additional information including the name of the plant, taxonomy, collector, location notes and more.

Temporary exhibition June - August 2024

A temporary exhibition about the University of Sheffield Herbarium was on display in the Main hall of Weston Bank Library on level 5. In one case there contained information about the University Herbarium as well as a book of preserved algae, herbaria sheet and preservation equipment. In the other case was information about the digitisation project with related equipment, and information about Miss Comber and her collection.

Cabinet 1 front: herbaria specimens

Cabinet 1 back: herbarium preservation equipment

Cabinet 2 front: Miss Comber's collection

Cabinet 2 back: digitisation process

In addition to the cases there were three films on the screen which can be viewed below. They take you through the origin of plant hunting – the process of collecting plant specimens from the wild, plants in Victorian culture, the rise of herbaria to store specimens for botanical study, and finally an overview of the Comber family who have provided a number of specimens to the University of Sheffield Herbaria, and all have ties to botany - the combined videos are embedded below.

University of Sheffield Herbarium CollectionThree films are shown which take you through the origin of plant hunting – the process of collecting plant specimens from the wild, plants in Victorian culture, the rise of herbaria to store specimens for botanical study, and finally an overview of the Comber family who have provided a number of specimens to the University of Sheffield Herbaria, and all have ties to botany.The University of Sheffield Herbarium, looked after by the School of Biosciences, is a collection of around 12,000 dried plant samples which span 170 years of floral history from the British Isles and more, with our earliest specimens collected in 1853. It houses a diversity of specimens including mosses, fungi, lichen and the more commonly recognised flowering plants and trees from the UK, Scandinavian countries and even swathes of Africa and America. Herbaria are collections of dried plants, often mounted on paper with their genus and species name noted alongside information pertaining to their collection such as location, date and who collected them. They are invaluable research assets, acting both as a bank of historical knowledge for researching past plant life, the impacts of climate change, molecular analysis and ethnobotanical studies highlighting the relationship between people and plants, among many other topics. As well as providing a store for current modern botanical research since plants collected in the field for analysis must be retained for follow up research and peer review if necessary. 