National Botanical Conservatory of Bailleul / e-ReColNat Infrastructure

The National Botanical Conservatory of Bailleul (CBNBL) preserve several thousand herbaria sheets organized in 2 large groups:
- The General Herbarium of CBNBL, as National Botanical Center, CBNBL ensures the patrimonial preservation of these documents;
- The reference herbarium of the CBNBL’s territory under the conservation agreement delivered by the French government.
Through its preservation actions and knowledge diffusion related to plants, the CBNBL ensures the management of an herbarium encompassing the Nord Pas de Calais - Picardie and Haute-Normandie territories.

The General Herbarium of CBNBL

The CBNBL possesses a rich General Herbarium of approximately 80,000 sheets (either as CBNBL’s property, legacies or on deposits). It is registered in the Index Herbariorum (global directory for herbaria) under the acronym BAIL. The specimens have diverse geographical origins (Europe and North Africa), and come from various French botanists ’collections:

J.-M. GÉHU Collection (Bailleul, 20th century): about 21,000 sheets (including the legacy of ACOLAS, Besançon) ;
H. GYSPERGER Collection (Mulhouse, 19th century): about 15,500 sheets ;
LEVENT Collection (Reims, early 19th century): about 17,000 sheets ;
R. NÈGRE Collection (Marseille, 20th century): about 9,000 sheets (Herbarium of France + Herbarium of Northern Africa) ;
M. HOCQUETTE Collection (Lille, late 19th - early 20th century): about 4,250 sheets ;
DURIN Collection (Le Cateau-Cambrésis, 20th century): about 3,400 sheets ;
J. CUSSAC Collection (North of France, 19th century): about 2,600 sheets, and was a deposit from the University of Lille1 ;
M.BON Collection (Picardie, 20th century): about 2,300 sheets ;
Other minor collections: ALLAYS [Cassel (North), 1940], FOURCADE (Pyrenees, 19th century), HOUILLON (Arras, 20th century).

To these collections is added cryptogamic material (mosses, lichens) that has not been counted to this day. All Pteridophytes (ferns) and Gymnosperms (conifers) from the General Herbarium is restored, classified and counted. The other groups are still in an inventorying process.

Priority is given to the inventory of the plant material collected on the territory under the CBNBL’s Conservation agreement.

The reference herbarium of the territory under the CBNBL’s Conservation agreement

This herbarium is smaller than the General Herbarium, and is restricted to the wild vascular flora and bryophytes located on the territories under the Conservation agreement (Nord Pas de Calais - Picardie and Haute-Normandie).

The material contained in this herbarium mostly come from collects undertaken since 1995. For the most threatened species, samplings have been made either on collections of the “Jardin des plantes sauvages” (Wild plant Garden) or the “Jardin des plantes médicinales” (Medicinal plant Garden) of the CBNBL, or even sometimes, in regions where the plant is abundant, but not threatened.

The reference herbarium is a very efficient tool that provides help for the determination of vascular plants of our region, and educational support for botany courses.

Terms of access to the herbarium :

Consultation of the General Herbarium on CBNBL’s site is possible on appointment only. Consultation in situ of the General Herbarium is possible by appointment. Loan of plants material (limited amount) for a maximum period of one year is feasible upon reasoned request (works on taxonomic revisions…). Consultation of the reference herbarium is also possible on appointment. It is free. A stereo microscope is made available.

DURIN Collection, sheet of Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce, L'Isle-sur-Serein (89), May 1978,
© J.-M. Lecron (CBNBl)