HERBARIA OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AGRICULTURE OHRADA AND VALTICE

HERBARIA OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AGRICULTURE – OHRADA AND VALTICE

The Ohrada branch of the National Museum of Agriculture has in its collection various important regional herbaria, which were created mainly at Schwarzenberg estates, usually by estate officials. Jakub Jungbauer (1785–1852) assembled in 1845–1847 a three-volume herbarium Cryptogamische Schmarotzerpflanzen auf Forstgewächsen and a six-volume forest herbarium Wald-Herbar – eine Sammlung der heimischen und eingebürgerten fremden…, which is kept in cardboard boxes that bear the Schwarzenberg coat of arms.

By far the most extensive is the 100-volume herbarium created by botanical activities of Christian Casimir Brittinger (1795–1869). Aside from specimens collected by the author it also includes items from herbaria of various other European and international botanists, acquired mainly by exchange.

Vilém Hirsch (1887–1959) and his 43­-volume herbarium stands out by the precise localisation of collection sites in the Bohemian Forest. Hirsch’s collection includes also a unique assembly kept in pasteboard boxes. Vojtěch Mareš (1862–1932) in his ten-volume herbarium Systematische Zusammenstelung der in Österreich ohne oder unter leichtem Schutz im freien Lande ausdauernden Laubholzarten und Formen focused on woody plants.

Ohrada’s collections also feature a dendrological herbarium from Zlatá Koruna, where the individual volumes (over 60 in total) are in effect books dedicated to particular woody plants; in them, we find the leaves, wood, fruit, cones, flowers, root, section of a twig, seeds, a seedling, and a detailed hand-written characteristic of the tree or shrub in question.  They were made in early nineteenth century, predominantly by the German botanist and forester Karl Aloys von Hinterlang (1798–1826).

The Valtice branch of the National Museum of Agriculture manages three groups of herbals and herbaria. The first was created around the 1930s and focuses on Czechoslovak flora (plants growing in the forests, villages, and meadows, as well as weeds, and grasses). The second group consists of specimens of grasses and decorative shrubs collected in 1850 and 1930s. The items are described only by hand-written notes in pencil and the assembly as a whole is dated only on the folder in which the leaves are kept. The third group of herbaria is dedicated to mainly to berry-bearing shrubs and fruit trees represented by their leaves; we find here the raspberry, blackberry, gooseberry, currant, and hazelnut shrubs, but also an apple tree and medlar. No further identifying information – such as its author and dating – survive for this herbarium. Most leaves are attached to the paper by plasterboard strips.