Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève
The many lives of herbaria
The Conservatory and Botanical Garden of Geneva holds a herbarium of unmatched richness, the result of a botanical tradition dating to the end of the eighteenth century. This dynamic collection, ever in motion, is used daily by our researchers and those from around the world to study, understand and protect the world of plants and fungi.
The placing of dried plants in herbaria is a practice that goes back to the 16th century. It quickly became evident that it is the simplest way to study them without the constraints of time or space. During the era of great exploration, the practice became widespread, having as its ambition a truly titanic endeavor: describing and classifying the world of plants and mushrooms in its entirety. This is the first life of herbaria.
Owing to technological advances, herbaria reveal themselves to hold new information which earlier botanists certainly could not have imagined. It is these many lives of herbaria which this exhibition offers for your discovery.
Winter schedule (October 28 - March 22)
11h00 - 12h00
13h00 - 16h45
Summer schedule (March 25 - October 27):
10h30 - 12h00
13h00 - 18h00
Cabinet of curiosities
Closed weekly on Mondays
Until 1st of March 2020