Botanical heritage of Karl Ernst von Baer and his herbarium from the 19th century

ABSTRACT

The Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of the Estonian University of Life Sciences houses the herbarium of the Baltic German scientist Karl Ernst von Baer (1792–1876), who was often referred to as “Humboldt des Nordens” (Humboldt of the North) in European scientific circles after the death of the German geographer, explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt in 1859. While Baer is well-known as a zoologist and embryologist, his contributions as a botanist are not as widely recognized, although his passion for botany, especially at a younger age was remarkable. This paper aims to highlight Baer’s active involvement in botany, document the conservation and management efforts of his botanical collections, and provide an overview of its content. Baer’s herbarium comprises over 11,900 specimens, primarily vascular plants, with a smaller number of algae, lichens, bryophytes, and fungi, collected in 19th century. The material comes from all over the world, but somewhat more from the European countries where Baer himself has worked. The plants were either collected by Baer himself, obtained through exchanges, or purchased from other botanists. We present the history of the collection and describe its various extensive sections. The systematisation and digitisation of the Baer’s herbarium facilitate wide access to this valuable database. The botanical collection of K. E. von Baer is currently deposited at TAA.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation
• databasing
• herbaria digitisation
• historical herbaria
• Karl Ernst von Baer
• TAA

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the curators of the Estonian History Museum and the Estonian Literary Museum for granting them permission to access the documents in their archives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors contributions

TK drafted and supervised this study. TK and ET both contributed to the manuscript’s final version.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Education and Research project 8-2/T9042PKBJ, Estonia.