National Biodiversity Collection – Herbarium KRAM
The W. Szafer Institute of Botany PAS is one of the most important disposers of scientific collections and databases of the biological diversity of vascular plants and cryptogams (bryophytes, algae, fungi, including lichens, and myxomycetes) in Europe and worldwide. These collections, known widely as the Herbarium KRAM, are of international importance and have been included for a long time in the world's most important databases, e.g. Index Herbariorum, Index Fungorum, Algae Base. In 2020, the Institute's scientific collections were entered on the Polish Roadmap for Research Infrastructures under the name of the National Biodiversity Collection of Recent and Fossil Organisms at W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences (NBC IB PAS).
The beginnings of a regular botanical collection can be traced back to 1866, with the establishment of the Physiographic Commission initiated by the Cracow Scientific Society, which was transformed in 1872 into the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and after the end of World War I into the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. After the dissolution of the Academy in 1952, the botanical collections of the Museum of the Physiographic Commission were deposited in the W. Szafer Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences, established a year later. The oldest historical collections associated with the Museum of the aforementioned Commission, elaborated and secured at the Institute, date from the late 17th, 18th and late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Institute's collections, whose total number of accession numbers amounts to nearly 1.5 million (about 230,000 remain to be inventoried), are also the only ones in Poland so diverse in terms of representation of systematic groups of plants and fungi, with significant collections from all continents. An extremely rich part of the herbarium set is the palaeobotanical collection.
Contact person – chief curator:
Professor Lucyna Śliwa (Director of IB PAS)
Herbarium of vascular plants – KRAM V
Herbarium of vascular plants comprises over 645,387 accessioned specimens (including ca. 2900 nomenclatural types), plus several thousand additional unmounted and unaccessioned specimens being processed. The herbarium is one of the two largest in Poland. It is particularly rich in specimens from southern Poland, western Ukraine and Carpathians, due to the efforts of B. Kotula, H. Zapałowicz, B. Pawłowski and several other botanists who have been active in these regions.
The oldest collection is the herbarium of J. Jundziłł (1794–1877) who was a professor at Vilnius University. His set consists of 6249 sheets of vascular plants arranged into 40 herbarium boxes and 5 fascicles. Most materials were collected by J. Jundziłł in the vicinity of Kowno (now Kaunas, Lithuania) in years 1825–1832. The oldest KRAM V collections are also parts of the Jundziłł's Herbarium. These are 51 sheets collected in South Africa during J. Cook's second voyage (1772–1775) by J.G. Forster (1754–1794) and 29 sheets of J.E. Gilibert (1741–1814) without collection data.
The first herbarium sets were deposited by botanists in the Museum of the Physiographical Commission. The collection of S. Witwicki gathered in 1865 was registered as the first in the collection catalogue. This collection consists of 137 specimens from the Chornohora mountain range of the Eastern Carpathians (Ukraine). The collection catalogue of the Physiographic Commission includes 310 collections registered in years 1866–1946. With the passage of time the herbarium of the Commission was expanding also thanks to donations or purchases and as a result of special scientific expeditions or exchange cooperation with other research institutions. The abundant herbarium material collected during the Commission's activities is mainly found in the KRAM V herbarium of the W. Szafer Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where they were elaborated and secured.
The KRAM V is having rich collections of eminent Polish botanists of the last 150 years, e.g., A. Jasiewicz (ca. 50,000 herbarium sheets) from the Carpathians, Balkan Peninsula, Mediterranean area, Mexico and China, B. Kotula from Tirol (16,931 specimens) and Tatra Mts., T. Wilczyński (ca. 10,000 items), K. Piech (6712 specimens), I. Dąbkowska (3871 specimens), A. Ślendziński from Pokuttya (Ukraine), E. Janczewski from Volhynia (Ukraine), A. Andrzejowski from Ukraine, H. Zapałowicz from Carpathians, A. Rehman, E. Wołoszczak and A. Żmuda.
In KRAM V, besides the Jundziłł's Herbarium, there are stored two separate collections of J. Mądalski (hb. Mądalski) and B. Pawłowski (hb. Pawłowski). The herbarium of B. Pawłowski consists of over 40,000 sheets and was donated to the KRAM Herbarium by the botanist’s wife after his tragic death in 1971. The herbarium mainly includes the flora of the mountains of central and southern Europe. Mądalski’s Herbarium was donated to the W. Szafer Institute of Botany in 1991 and consists of 38,292 numbered specimens (excluding doublets or multiplets).
Contact person – curator:
Dr. Beata Paszko
Herbarium of bryophytes – KRAM B
Herbarium of bryophytes is the largest collection of these plants in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It was established on the basis of the collections of the Museum of the Physiographic Commission. The first in the catalog of Section III. Musci frondosi of the Botanical Department was a small collection by S. Witwicki from Czarnohora (now Ukraine) in 1865, including 6 species, and under number 1, Hypnum fertile Sendtn was registered. The KRAM B herbarium currently consists of 265,000 incorporated and accession-numbered specimens of mosses, liverworts, and sepals, placing it among the top 40 largest herbaria of bryophytes in the world. In addition, the herbarium contains some 50,000 specimens that are awaiting processing and incorporation into the main collection. These include the collection from West and Central Africa (about 15,000 specimens), donated to KRAM by S. Lisowski (1924–2002), and the collection of mosses from all over the world (approximately 20,000 specimens) by M. Kuc (1932–2011). The herbarium also has more than 2,000 nomenclatural types, i.e., specimens that have been used to describe new taxa of bryophytes. These are the most valuable collections, determining the unique status of each herbarium compared to other similar collections. In total, the bryophyte herbarium collects approx. 80% of all known species of mosses, representing about 90% of all the traditionally conceived genera of these plants in the world.
One of the oldest collections of bryophytes in the KRAM herbarium is in the separate collection of J. Jundzil (1794–1877). It counts 133 specimens of mosses and 47 liverworts collected in 1825–1832 near Kaunas, Lithuania. The bryophyte collection includes mosses, liverworts, and hornworts from all over the world, although, for obvious reasons, its core consists of bryophytes from Poland. The domestic collection includes specimens documenting local moss floras and floristic reports published in the former Laboratory of Bryology, as well as numerous duplicates and original specimens from bryologists working at other scientific centers in Poland.
Of global importance are the rich collections of exotic bryophytes, especially from the polar regions of the southern hemisphere, which are among some of the world's largest collections of these plants from this region. They include bryophytes from all parts of Antarctica and the subantarctic islands, particularly from the Prince Edward Islands, Les Crozet and Les Kerguelen, Heard Island, and South Georgia, as well as from Le Amsterdam, the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, and Gough Island. From other non-European areas collections from China, tropical Africa, South America, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand are particularly richly represented.
The herbarium of bryophytes at KRAM has numerous series of exsiccatae that are included in the main collection, although they are usually kept in separate folders. Of the historical exsiccatae, the most noteworthy are such valuable series as Musci Sueciae Exsiccati by S.J. Lindgren, K.F. Thedenius and O.L. Sillén (1835–1838), Musci Alleghanienses by W.S. Sullivant (1846), Hepaticae Europaeae by G.L. Rabenhorst and C.M. Gottsche (1855–1879), G.L.Rabenhorst's Bryotheca Europaea (1858–1884), Flora Exsiccata Austro-Hungarica by A.J. Kerner von Marilaun, K. Fritsch and R. Wettstein (1881–1913), Kryptogamae Exsiccatae editae a Museo Palatino Vindobonensi (1894–1986), Musci Europaei Exsiccati and Musci Europaei et Americani Exsiccati by E. Bauer (1903–1936), Bryotheca Saxonica by A. Kopsch (1919–1936) and Musci Brasilienses by V.F. Schiffner (1932), that contain numerous type specimens.
Contact person – curator:
Professor Ryszard Ochyra
Collections of algae – KRAM A
The collection currently includes among others, the herbarium of freshwater and marine specimens (elaborated by: R. Gutwiński, E. Wołoszczak, J. Kornaś, T. Kowal and K. Wołowski) and series of exsiccatae: Phycotheca Polonica by M. Raciborski, Die Algen Europa's by L. Rabenhorst and Algae Aque Dulcis Exiccatae by V. Wittrock and O. Nordstedt. The Algae Iconoteca is of great cognitive value. It was created in the 1960s following the example of the "Fritsch Collection of Freshwater Algal Illustrations", completed at the Institute of Freshwater Ecology in Windermere, Great Britain. It is the only collection of this type in Poland and one of the three largest in the world. It is a valuable, unique form of phycological data documentation and contains 416,356 figures, including 11,208 for new taxa, an alphabetical index of taxa names, and a bibliography of 7,377 items. Iconography is the only easily available source of information, especially important in the case of newly described microscopic species which can be neither preserved nor stored in the form of live cultures. The file of Polish algae sites collected until 1980, recorded on nearly 28,000 cards is also an important element of the entire collection of KRAM A.
Contact person – curator:
Professor Konrad Wołowski
Collections of fungi – KRAM F
The collection of fungi contains more than 60,600 accessed specimens (another 50,000 are awaiting processing and incorporation). The collection comprises mostly Basidiomycota (club fungi), and to a lesser extent Ascomycota (sac fungi) and fungal-like organisms, mainly from Europe (mostly from Poland), but also from Africa, South America, and Asia. The collections of epiphytic and phytopathogenic fungi are especially valuable. A priceless collection is the collection of representatives of the order Laboulbeniales by T. Majewski, which are an interesting evolutionary group of fungi parasitizing on insects. The collection of the latter fungi includes a collection of beetles, flies, and other insects colonized by them. The high rank of the fungal collection is evidenced by the presence of numerous nomenclatural types of fungi belonging to various systematic and ecological groups.
Contact person – curator:
Dr. Marcin Piątek
Collections of lichens – KRAM L
The collection of lichens is the largest and growing lichenological herbarium in Poland of recognized international importance. The collection consists of about 72,000 specimens, including 300 nomenclatural types and 7,000 specimens from 35 series of exsiccatae. It hosts many valuable collections on national and international scales, among others historical exsiccatae series by F. Arnold and G. Rabenhorst. Lichens gathered in Poland, and particularly in the Carpathians (including an especially valuable collection of J. Nowak) are the bulk of the KRAM L collection. Important are also collections from tropical areas of South America (including the world’s largest collection of lichens and lichenicolous fungi from Bolivia), the Ukrainian Eastern Carpathians and Podolia, Asia, North America, and polar areas. The most significant part includes species representing the families Caliciaceae, Lecanoraceae, Parmeliaceae, Physciaceae, Teloschistacea, and Verrucariaceae, and also the sets of neotropical foliicolous lichens and lichenicolous fungi. The herbarium comprises collections assembled by W. Boberski, J. Mądalski, A. Rehman, K. Glanc, J. Kiszka, and J. Piórecki, as well as, by several contemporary Polish and foreign lichenologists.
Contact person – curator:
Dr. Adam Flakus
Collection of myxomycetes – KRAM M
The collection of myxomycetes in the KRAM herbarium is one of the largest and most important collections of this group of organisms in Poland. It contains over 1,500 numbered items, about 3,000 unnumbered specimens (in preparation), and about 3,000 permanent microscopic slides. The most valuable part of the herbarium is historical material, notably internationally important contributions from J. Rostafiński, M. Raciborski, J. Krupa, and H. Krzemieniewska. The herbarium collection has been further enriched by exchange or donations which included specimens collected or studied by A. Lister, Ch. Meylan, J. Schroeter and C. Torrend. A significant part of the contemporary collection are nivicolous myxomycetes from the mountainous areas of the world, mainly from the mountains of Europe, including the Carpathians and the mountains of South America (Andes). KRAM M contains specimens from Argentina, Chile, France, Spain, Indonesia, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Ukraine, and the USA, and about 100 nomenclature types.
Contact person – curator:
Dr. Anna Ronikier
Palaeobotanical collection – KRAM P
The palaeobotanical collection is the most valuable and most extensive (ca. 100,000 items) collection of this type in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. Fossilized plant materials document pre-Paleogene floras (aged over 65 million years), Paleogene and Neogene floras (65–2.58 million years), and Quaternary floras (2.58 million years until modern times). Floras aged over 65 million years comprise 101 collections and single specimens from 22 sites in Poland and in the world. Specimens in the form of rock fragments with preserved parts of plants, thin polished sections of mineralized trunks, or branches, and microscopic slides, mostly of leaf cuticles, pollen and spores, comprise over 6,000 items. Some specimens were collected in places that became inaccessible or difficult to access for various reasons, e.g. Hope Bay in Antarctic Peninsula, Mongolia, Rhynie in Great Britain, Grojec near Kraków, or Odrowąż in the Holy Cross Mountains. Among the collected specimens, particularly worthy of notice are holotypes of Mesozoic taxa described as new for science, including not only species but also genera. The presence of these unique specimens contributes to the importance of the collection, making it more attractive for scientists from research centers all over the world. The collection of Paleogene and Neogene floras is rich in fruits and seeds, rock fragments with imprints or carbonized parts of plants, preparations of entire leaves and other fragments of plants, and cuticular slides. Quaternary floras contain mostly fruits and seeds but also leaves, seed coats, cones, and wood fragments. Worthy of mention is also the valuable comparative collection of modern plants, comprising the collection of fruits and seeds (ca. 27,000 items), collection of palynological slides (ca. 17,200 slides composing a specific pollen herbarium), collection of leaves (ca. 4,700 sheets), collection of cuticular slides (ca. 600 slides), comparative collection of wood fragments (300 samples of contemporary trees and shrubs, and 380 anatomical slides), comparative collection of peats (280 slides of tissues and 310 slides of peat units). Only a few scientific institutions in Poland and in the world host collections of microscope slides of leaf cuticles and a unique collection of slides of cleared fossil leaves, which makes the collection extremely valuable and useful for palaeobotanical studies.
Contact person – curator:
Dr. Agnieszka Wacnik
Collection of algae cultures
The collection includes 50 algal taxa, including: 6 species of Cryptomonas (Cryptophyceae) ‒ 50 clonal isolates, 10 taxa of Pediastrum (Chlorophyceae) ‒ 30 clonal isolates, 24 taxa of green algae (Chlorococcales), 5 taxa of euglenes (Euglena, Phacus and Trachelomonas; Euglenophyceae) ‒ 30 clonal isolates and 27 isolates of green algae from different environments and 5 taxa of cyanobacteria.
Contact person – curator:
Professor Konrad Wołowski
Collection of DNA isolates
The collection of DNA isolates is the newest collection, established in 2015 to assemble isolates of the total genomic DNA of many taxa, as well as amplicons of selected DNA pieces. In addition to DNA samples, there are kept tissues that are initial materials for DNA isolation.
The collection is a unique resource for DNA research at the species or population level and includes, among others, material from hard-to-reach areas of the world (including high mountains, and polar and tropical areas). For many species, samples from their entire geographical range are available (e.g., population sampling of approximately 2,000 individuals from the circumpolar range of the Arctic-Alpine species Dryas octopetala). For the rare, protected and endangered species studied at the Institute, collections of DNA isolates provide extremely important documentation of biodiversity and population diversity. The collection is therefore important from both a research and documentation point of view, on a national and international level.
Contact person – curator:
Dr. Michał Ronikier