Orléans Biodiversity and Environment Museum

The Herbaria collection of the Orléans Biodiversity and Environment Museum (MOBE) contains about 42,000 sheets of plants from France, mostly from the Centre region, but also from Switzerland, Egypt, Algeria, and of cosmopolitan origins, split into 45 Herbaria of various value.

Mainly composed during the 19th and 20th centuries, the Herbaria are kept sorted by authors, except for the France and Loiret Herbaria by André Nouel.

Herbaria of scientific and historical interest:

  • Auguste de Saint-Hilaire Herbarium (1779-1853), scholar naturalist and great explorer, who travelled across Germany but mainly Brazil, of which he described the flora in several books. His Brazil herbarium is preserved at the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris (MNHN). He also herborized in the Centre region, and composed a France herbarium. The Herbarium of the Museum of Orléans possesses plants from France and Switzerland. It is composed by 13 big boxes, containing 1,800 sheets perfectly prepared and labelled.

  • Jacques Martial Pelletier-Sautelet Herbarium (1778-1870),doctor in medicine and physiologist. It is composed by 900 sheets, most of the plants coming from Loiret.

  • André Edmé Amédée Nouel Herbarium (1801-1887) or Herbarium of France and Loiret Herbarium: André Nouel, professor of mathematics, was curator at the Natural History Museum of Orléans from 1863 to his death. The “Herbier de France” and “Herbier du Loiret” that are due to him, are groupings of sheets from his own herbaria, and from herbaria bequeathed to the Museum, either by their owners or their families (Berthelot, Franchet, Joly, Jullien-Crosnier, Humniki, Thion).

  • Humnicki Herbarium: plants of France (composition: 1859-1880). This botany enthusiast, of Polish origin, carried out researches on the genus Verbascum for Adrien René Franchet, author of a Loir-et-Cher flora. He was also corresponding with Pierre-Alfred Déséglise, French botanist who was living in Geneva, concerning the genus Rosa. Traveling regularly to Haute-Saône, he collaborated with Xavier Vendrely, a pharmacist and botanist from Franche-Comté.

  • Eugène Bourgeau Herbarium, 130 specimens, with a few type species from Algeria, collected in 1856.

  • Herbarium of the École Saint-Grégoire de Pithiviers, 1,332 specimens of the region collected by the Canon Jules Benoît.

The Museum of Orléans has been closed for renovation since September 1st 2015.

Herbarium of the MSNO, Augustin François César Prouvençal de Saint-Hilaire (1779-1853) private Coll.
© Muséum, Ville d'Orléans

Mahogany box of the Saint-Hilaire Herbarium, MSNO © Christophe Camus, Muséum, Ville d'OrléansChristophe Camus, Museum, Orléans

Sheet of the Saint-Hilaire Herbarium, Filipendula vulgaris, MSNO © Christophe Camus, Muséum, Ville d'OrléansChristophe Camus, Museum, Orléans