National Herbarium (ON)

National Herbarium (ON)
Sultanate of Oman
Within the Natural History Museum and the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, the National Herbarium (ON) Formed in 1982 with a gift of 800 named specimens by the late John Maconochie. It has received the international recognition and the award of the acronym "ON“. AVAILABLE FOR STUDY specimens of most flowering plants of Oman collected since 1943. Plants specimens are preserved as dry and in a preserving liquid in a glass jar.
More than 128 plant families, 650 genera and 1600 species are repre¬sented in this Herbarium. There is also a collection of ferns and marine algae (seaweed's), and the nuclei of collections of aquatic algae, mosses, fungi, lichens and seeds.

Access database
The information on the collector labels is compiled in a computerized data base, which hold more than 13000 entries for higher plants and more than 800 for Marine Algae.
This important data permits an assessment of the distribution and abundance (or rarity) of each species, habitat preference, phenology, flowering period and traditional and economic uses, as well as forming a record of the history of the environment of Oman.

How can National Herbarium (ON) help you?
Listed below activities and services available here:
 Identification services
 Access to the large data of Omani plants database
 Act as place where students, researchers can study Flora of Oman.
 Hold information for more than 14000 specimens of Omani plants.
 Work hand by hand with other institutions in Oman to conserve the Plants of Oman.
 Its also a very important source of information for the designing of public exhibitions in Oman and for assessing the need to protect endemic, rare, and endangered plants.
 THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM is run on similar lines to those great herbaria of other countries with whom Oman has a close professional relationship, such as the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh, U.K.
 Training University’s students on Herbarium techniques.
 Scanning all herbarium specimens.

 As a future target is to work toward the completion of this e-Flora to represent the Flora of Oman and National Herbarium (ON).

                FROM THIS IRREPLACEABLE STORE OF INFORMATION, and from its library of literature and photographs, experts can prepare many books and publications in the Flora of Oman.