Rediscovery of an ancient herbarium for Turkish botanical history: Bolu Girls Village Institute Herbarium

Bolu Girls’ Village Institute Herbarium (Bolu Kız Köy Enstitüsü Herbaryumu) was founded in 1953 by Muhittin Fehmi Özgen. It is one of the earliest herbaria of the Turkish Republic. The herbarium was part of the natural history collections of the school which also included insects, minerals, and fossils. The herbarium initially contained around 2500 specimens within 72 cardboard boxes. Additionally, specimens from this herbarium were sent to İstanbul University Department of Biology Herbarium (ISTF) and around 600 specimens to the herbarium of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (E). In 2006, we received 567 plant specimens in five boxes. The plants were mainly collected from Bolu and neighboring provinces between 1953 and 1958. The herbarium collection contains one bryophyte specimen and three seedless vascular plants. The remaining taxa belong to gymnosperms and angiosperms. The herbarium labels were prepared both in Latin and Turkish. Majority of the specimens have identification up to family and genus level and a small number of them up to species level. This herbarium remained largely unknown to Turkish botanists. Therefore, we think it is valuable to provide detailed information about the history and the content of the herbarium. The information given here not only will contribute to our knowledge about the natural history collections of Turkey but also to the education history of the Turkish Republic.