Access the Herbarium
Book a research visit, access online or find out how to arrange loans.
Kew's Herbarium contains around seven million vascular plant specimens.
Find out below how to access the Herbarium online, arrange a research visit, request a loan or send in specimens or donated material.
Online
There are digital versions of the physical collection but they are not yet complete.
In the case of the Herbarium, 850,000 specimens have been digitised (as at 2018) which represents 12% of our seven million specimens.
To arrange a visit
We welcome visits from academics for research purposes.
The public can only visit these collections via special events such as open days and the Kew Science Festival.
Book your research visit to the Herbarium
To arrange loans
We loan or exchange specimens each year to organisations worldwide. If you wish to arrange a loan or exchange please read our Herbarium loan regulation policy.
Then email requests to a.paton@kew.org.
To send in specimens
Please do not send us unsolicited or unaddressed specimens or materials.
We can only add material to our Herbarium that has been collected and brought into the UK according to a set of strict procedures established by international treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Before sending specimens, please contact us.
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Richmond
TW9 3AE
UK