What is a Herbarium?
A herbarium is a critical resource for biodiversity, ecological, and evolutionary research studies. It is a primary data source of dried and labeled plant specimens that is arranged to allow for easy retrieval access and archival storage. A herbarium is like a library, but differs in that the information is stored in a biological form––as pressed, dried, and annotated plant specimens (in the case of most vascular plants; lichens, fungi, bryophytes and some vascular plants are preserved slightly differently, although the main points are the same). The Duke Herbarium (DUKE) has acquired its specimens over time primarily through research-directed field collections by Duke faculty, staff, and students, but also by gift and exchange with other herbaria worldwide.

Herbaria consist of specimens that have been collected over broad geographic ranges and over many years. Multiple samples of individual species collected from different habitats are typically preserved so that variation among individuals can be documented, and related to ecological factors or evolutionary factors. Herbarium and museum collections comprise the basic materials for obtaining information about the world's biodiversity. Herbarium specimens also provide materials for research on variation at the DNA level, genome structure, and gene expression.