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<\/a><\/p>\nThe Botanical Museum of the University of Patras was founded in 1973, based on the P.D. 360 (Government Gazette 264 \/ 3-10-1973), resulted from the initiative of Professor Dimitrios Phitos, who was the first Director of the Chair of Botany, at the Department of Biology. The main goal of the Museum is the investigation and scientific documentation of the natural capital of Greece with emphasis on its flora.<\/p>\n
It functions as a basic research structure and infrastructure of the Department of Biology that a) is the basis for systematic, biogeographical, and phylogenetic research of plants and b) supports the education of students of the Department of Biology.<\/p>\n
The scientific and cultural value of the Botanical Museum is particularly important because it is associated with the unique biodiversity and genetic resources reserve and of the unique Greek flora.<\/p>\n
According to the P.D. 360 (3-10-1973) the Director of the Botanical Museum is the respective Director \/ Professor of the Laboratory \/ Chair of Botany, a fact that reflects the close relationship of the respective units (Laboratory of Botany, Chair of Botany, Botanical Museum), which for many years functioned as a single unit and an educational and research activity.<\/p>\n
Since 1982, the Botanical Museum (Herbarium) belongs to the Department of Biology, as a separate structure and the Division of Plant Biology is responsible for its operation, through a three-member committee appointed by the Department of Biology. It is located in the building of Biology and Mathematics at the University Campus in Rio, Patras.<\/p>\n
The Botanical Museum includes \u200b\u200ba) herbarium collections, with plant specimens stored and preserved in specially designed cabinets, b) a research area and auxiliary rooms for the preservation, treatment and elaboration of plant specimens c) \u00a0a public reception area with different thematic units on plant taxa and natural ecosystems.<\/p>\n
Since December 2018, the permanent thematic exhibition entitled “Greek Flora: a unique Natural Capital<\/strong>” is open to the public.<\/p>\n<\/div>Collections<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe UPA Herbarium hosts more than 70.000 voucher specimens of vascular plant which date from 1816 until today and a large proportion of which are already digitized.<\/p>\n
These specimens are part of collections of Greek and European researchers from a range of geographical regions (mountains, islets-islands, wetlands, grasslands, woodlands etc.).<\/p>\n\n\t\t