University of Coimbra

COI

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Updated Jan 2010. Since 1879 the Herbarium of the Department of Botany of the University of Coimbra, Portugal (COI), has owned the Herbarium of the german (Saxonian) Henrich Moritz Willkomm, Professor at Prague University and a specialist on the flora of the Iberian Peninsula. This collection was bought to Willkomm and contains vascular and non-vascular plants of the Mediterranean area and the Macaronesian Islands and includes c. 10.000 species and over 30.000 specimens. The specimens were collected by Willkomm himself and other relevant botanical collectors of the time e.g., Bourgeau, Orphanides, Sieber, Lange, Loscos, Boissier, Reuter, Lagasca, Cavanilles. It was the basis for Willkomm & Lange's Prodromus Florae Hispanicae (1861-1880), the first comprehensive Flora of most of the Iberian Peninsula - only now being superseded by the Flora iberica (Castroviejo et al., 1986-, Madrid) - and contains many type specimens of Iberian taxa. Not all Willkomm specimens are at COI and some are scattered in other institutes. But this is by far the largest assemblage of his material and he regarded it as his core collection which, as a whole he sold to Júlio Henriques, the founder of COI. Specimens in Willkomm Herbarium not sent on loan.

http://www.uc.pt/herbario_digital