For the past almost six centuries, scientists have been documenting the plants and fungi of the world through herbaria. The basic preparation of the specimens that are housed in an herbarium has changed relatively little over time. This simple technology was a key innovation in transforming the study of plants and fungi from a minor subdiscipline of medicine into an independent scientific endeavor.

The herbarium has made it possible for scientists to characterise the plants and fungi that grow in faraway places and to understand their diversity on a global scale. The men and women collectors and curators responsible for the wealth of herbaria we have today are diverse in national heritage, education and social status. The geographic, taxonomic, and temporal breadth of their legacy allows us to understand the diversity of the world’s vegetation in the past and present, and to predict its future.