INRAE Villa Thuret / e-ReColNat Infrastructure

The Herbarium of the Villa Thuret was composed by Gustave Thuret and his collaborator Edouard Bornet who inherited it, and then donated it to the French State (decree of June 23rd, 1879).

Gustave Thuret (1817-1875) was born in Paris where he studied humanities and law. He herborized at Rentilly and asked the help of Joseph Decaisne for determinations. Decaisne encouraged G. Thuret to work on the determination of algae on which he thrived, and observed for the first time, the Fucus fertilization. Following health problems, he stays in Antibes where he buys a 5 Ha plot in the Cap d’Antibes, part of which forms today the Botanical Garden of the Villa Thuret.

In 1879, the herbarium of Antibes had 152 bundles containing about 10,000 species represented by 40,000 samples. Completed by scientists of the Villa Thuret, it has today around 160,000 sheets of Cryptogams and Phanerogams, from all over the world, native, and exotic species introduced in the Botanical Garden of Antibes. The algae collection includes 3,000 specimens. The Thuret herbarium, collected in Alpes-Maritimes, was deposited at the Herbarium of Geneva for the composition of the Alpes-Maritimes flora by Burnat.

Besides the plants either collected by G. Thuret and E. Bornet in the 19th century or acquired through correspondence, the herbarium initially included 16 collections that were used as the basis for the current phanerogams general herbarium (Balansa, Billot, Bordère, Bourgeau, Caruel, Déséglise, Heldreich, Huet du Pavillon, Huguenius, Jounin, Kralik, Mabille, Puel et Maille, Reverchon, Soleirol, Todaro). This herbarium contains about 60,000 pieces, classified following the Durand Index. About 20 other collections were added: Pteridophytes from Poirault, Bryophytes from Crozales, Antilles plants from Stehle, etc. The herbarium is currently enriched with exotic species from either the Thuret garden or the INRA’s arboretums. It just received the Duvigneaud et al. collection from the Alpes-Maritimes (5,000 sheets, from 1955-1970).

The Villa Thuret is under the authority of the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and its experimental Villa Thuret Unit that also manages the Botanical Garden and the historic library. After a long period of neglect, a restoration project for the Herbarium started in 2011, with the INRA and Alpes Maritimes administration support, and with the participation of a volunteer workshop. The Herbarium was entirely desinsectised by freezing. It is now in boxes and preserved in the dark, under controlled conditions.

As restoration and inventory progress, new authors appear. The samples layout and preservation status are highly variable.

Contact
Catherine Ducatillion :catherine.ducatillion@sophia.inra.fr