California Academy of Sciences Botany Collection, San Francisco (CAS-Botany)

The herbarium of the California Academy of Sciences is the largest collection of vascular plants in the western U.S. It is the sixth largest collection in the United States. The Academy collection includes approximately 2 million plant specimens. More than 95% of the specimens are vascular seed plants; the remainder are ferns and a growing collection of bryophytes. There are almost 12,000 types (holotypes, isotypes, syntypes, lectotypes, and neotypes) housed separately from the general collection.
Interim Collections Manager, Botany: Emily Magnaghi, emagnaghi@calacademy.org
Curatorial Assistant/Programmer: Jon Fong, jfong@calacademy.org
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 24 February 2021
IPT / DwC-A Source:
Import from CAS IPT
Digital Metadata: EML File
Collection Statistics
  • 4,989 specimen records
  • 2,549 (51%) georeferenced
  • 170 (3%) with images (186 total images)
  • 4,456 (89%) identified to species
  • 50 families
  • 163 genera
  • 743 species
  • 743 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
Show Geographic Distribution
Show Family Distribution
Taxon Distribution
Taxon Distribution