- History
- Aims and Objectives
- What we have achieved

- Funded Projects in process
- Friends and Volunteers
- What we can do for you
- Courses this year
- Living Succulent Herbarium

The original Forestry and Saasveld Herbarium specimens were donated by the CSIR to the National Botanical Institute, Pretoria in 1992.  Jan Vlok,  Yvette van Wijk and Di Turner motivated for its return,  and the PRE Herbarium agreed to send back some of the specimens.  
After many meetings between interested parties such as Cape Nature Conservation,  National Parks Board,  Saasveld,  Jan,  Yvette,   & Di ,  permission was granted by the director of Western Cape Museums,  Brian Wilmot,   and Museum Curator Linda Labuschagne,  to locate the Herbarium in a storeroom and small annex in the George Museum.  
The Southern Cape Herbarium was then started in order to house those  specimens sent back to George in 1994, and to ensure that the broader community as well as the environment, would benefit from the presence of a Herbarium devoted to the flora of the Southern Cape. 
Audrey Moriarty, author of "Outeniqua, Tsitsikamma and the Eastern Karoo" generously helped the Trust to buy a large property adjacent to the Botanical Garden. The house is ideal for our purposes, providing offices, lecture room and the Herbarium is housed in two large rooms. This property is now known as the "Moriarty Environmental Centre"

• The Southern Cape Herbarium aims to curate and build up the herbarium collection, and establish facilities to be made available for research and education,  to the broadest possible spectrum of the community.  

• House and catalogue the Herbarium collections in accordance with the norms of Herbaria world-wide.

• By developing awareness of the flora of the region,  and by identifying the importance of the flora in the context of community and environmental health,  to enable communities to gain a better understanding of the value, to them,  of the regional flora.  

• Help to instill a better conservation ethic in the region to the benefit of the community and the environment as a whole. 

• Generate funds and access donations and sponsorships, in order to cover running costs,  build up a Botanical Library,  and acquire other essential equipment.

Progress in the Herbarium to date

• The Herbarium was moved entirely by volunteers into the newly aquired Moriarty Environmental Centre adjacent to the Botanical Garden in June 2002.
• The Herbarium houses approximately 10 000 plant specimens from the southern Cape in the Main herbarium and about 2000 in the quick Guide section.
• In addition Audrey Moriarty's special collection for her book 'Outeniqua Tsitsikamma & Eastern Little Karoo'plus David Shearing's collection for his book 'Karoo' are housed separately, and in February 2003 Gerard Kirsten's collection for the book 'Ericas' was added to these.
• BEEP had regular contact with 30 schools. A book "Plants in our Environment - Activities for General Education & Training in Southern Cape Schools" was facilitated and published, to acclaim by many in the E E field. GREEN continues this work.
• Many interested people, learners, NGO's and parastatals, from all over the country and further afield, make use of the herbarium facilities, as can be seen from the visitors book.
• Every year the Herbarium runs many successful adult education courses for the general public, and workshops for teachers, clinics and conservation bodies, on a wide range of botanical and environmental subjects.
• The Herbarium Quick Guides hold duplicate specimens of Southern Cape plant species in wooden files, with photos, magazine & press cuttings, identification keys etc., making it possible for the public and scholars to readily identify plants.
• Books and pamphlets on various plant and environment related subjects have been published and are planned.

Quick Guides   -  For quick & easy identifying on your own,  these easy to use wooden sliding files of dried plant specimens,  have as many aids to help you as we can find,  colour pictures & photos,  descriptions,  magazine articles etc.  

Di's Files  - There is also a magnificent set of files of photostated and scanned plants in colour,  which are now data-based and indexed.  These are very useful for identifying plants or seeing what grows where and when it flowers,  in whichever Southern Cape area you are interested in,  or wish to visit. 

Training talks    -  and demonstrations on Herbarium practice,  are held for SCHerb volunteers, as well as help and advice given to other groups such as the Humansdorp Nature Reserve volunteers, the Mossgas Nature Reserve, and Pledge Nature Reserve,  various Schools and some private individuals,  all wishing to establish their own Field Herbaria.

Southern Cape species data-base   -  We are busy entering the entire Herbarium collection into the NBI SABONET data-base,  this will mean that we can print out lists of plants of any particular Family or Genus,  or lists of plants to be found in any 1:50 000 grid reference,  which are within our Southern Cape boundaries 

Courses - In order to involve the public in Herbarium activities and educate them as to the importance of the local flora, regular botanically orientated courses, led by well known experts in their fields, are offered by the Herbarium These courses are much enjoyed by the many participants we get each year,  and are a valuable source of income, as well as a vitally important way of implementing our objectives,  for the Herbarium.  Click here to go to our list of Courses & Events for 2006

Books & Maps   - The sale of books and maps from the Herbarium has increased considerably since Margie Herron was appointed as administrator in September 1999.  We have a good selection of Botanical and some Gardening books for sale and can try to order if they are out of stock or if we do not have the title you need.  We stock for sale all the 1:50 000 and 1: 250 000 maps for our area (see map below),  and have them displayed on the wall for you to see and use.  Much of the profit from these sales is used to expand the resources in the Herbarium's Library, which is being used increasingly by ourselves and the general public as it becomes more comprehensive, though still far from complete.