Botanical Collections

The Museum’s botanical collections (Herbarium HBBS, Herbarium Brixiensis) include about 80,000 samples of vascular plants, mosses, lichen algae and mushrooms. They have been collected from the 17th century to present time and they come from different places: the province of Brescia, Italy, Europe and other continents.

Herbarium

The herbarium is divided in:

– historical herbaria, realized between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries by several botanists: Elia Zersi, Agilulfo Preda, F. Von Mueller, Angelo Ferretti Torricelli, Montini family, Nino Arietti, Valerio Giacomini;

– general herbaria of mushrooms and vascular plants, that have continuously been incremented thanks to the collections of some researchers, members of the Scientific Associations that collaborate with the Museum (Centro Studi Naturalistici Bresciani, Circolo Micologico G. Carini, Associazione Botanica Bresciana). These associations are pivotal for their studies on the flora of Brescia.

In addition to the biological collections, particular note should be made of the wax mushroom collection created in the second half of the nineteenth century by Andrea Maestri, a renowned wax modeller from Pavia.

Historical nucleus

The historical core of the botanical collections originates from the donation of the University of Brescia in 1949 and from the collection of Valerio Giacomini, an internationally renowned botanist, dating to 1984.

These include the classic herbaria of Richiadei, known as the first herbarium of Brescia and dating back to 1623, the herbarium of the botanical garden of Padua (1677), the herbarium Gorno (1808) containing plant species grown in the botanical garden of Brescia.

Moroever, the herbarium of Elia Zersi, mainly realized in Brescia in the second half of the nineteenth century, shows the transition from the classic herbaria (lacking indications of collection localities) to the modern ones which make it possible to trace the place of origin of the specimens.

Photo Gallery

Botanical Department and Research activities

The Departments deals with the conservation of plant biodiversity, with studies on the museum’s botanical collections, flora and plant communities present in the area. These studies are conducted in collaboration with universities, research institutions, parks and scientific associations.

The section’s laboratory is equipped for the identification and photography of plant specimens under study. Precision instruments for biometric measurements are also available, complete with dedicated software for data digitization.

Flora and vegetation data, as well as information about the historical land use from the first half of the nineteenth century to present day, are organized in a Territorial Information System. This system allows the creation of distribution models and geo-ecological maps for the analysis of flora and plant communities.

The results of the studies and research are translated into dissemination articles for scientific publishing houses, the organization of seminars, refresher courses for teachers of different orders and grades, exhibition projects and educational programs focused on nature.

Current collaborations

University of Brescia (distribution models of flora and vegetation)

Università degli Sudi dell’Insubria (geoecology of herbaceous communities and relations between epigeal, hypogeal and soil biomass)

Università degli Studi di Milano (Flora and territory teaching unit of the analysis of ecosystems program)

Osservatorio Regionale Biodiversità (Scientific coordination of the project Flora of Lombardy and Citizen Science with Parco Monte Barro)

Comunità Montana Parco Alto Garda (scientific coordination of lake Garda museum network)

Parco Sovracomunale delle cave di Buffalora e San Polo (Coordination of the park Scientific Committee)

Centro Studi Naturalistici Bresciani (flora, vegetation, plant landscape of Val Carobbio)