Dpto. de Farmacología, Farmacognosia y Botánica, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Description

MAF Herbarium was founded by Blas Lázaro e Ibiza in 1892, with the unification of the Herbarium of the \"Sociedad Linneana Matritensis\" (1878-1892; 2241 sheets) and a collection of plants of P. A. Pourret, following the advised by Fausto Garagarza for their safeguarding in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Universidad Central. Following the creation of MAF Herbarium, it began hosting the collections of prominent botanists of the time, such as Marcelo Rivas Mateo, Máximo Laguna y José María Pérez Lara. Later, the botanical collections of different professors of the Faculty of Pharmacy were included. Among these, the most noteworthy are the collecions of José Cuatrecasas and Manuel López Figueiras. Similarly, remarkable external collections were acquired, such as the herbaria of Touton and Huguet del Villar. Currently, the MAF Herbarium hosts the following collections: MAF General (vascular plants); MAF Lich (lichens); MAF Fungi (fungi), MAF Algae (algae, mainly historic specimens); MAF Bryo (bryophytes), and MAF LAZ (Historical collection of MAF Founder, Lázaro Ibiza). The current location and storage facilities of the MAF Herbaria is attributed to Salvador Rivas Goday, who acquired 100 metalic cabinets to safeguard the collections according to the new standards for the preservation of Herbaria collections. The MAF Herbarium was included in the Index Herbariorum in 1993. Moreover, it is one of the founding members for the \"Asociacion de Herbarios Ibero-Macaronesicos\" (AHIM), and remains an active participant in the activities of this association. In 2003, it joined the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facilities) database. The number of currently preserved specimens is near 222000. Out of the total number of specimens in MAF, just over 10000 make up the historical collections of Pourret and the Linnean Society of Madrid. Specimens from other noteworthy collections and expeditions (e.g. L. Née, H. Ruiz & J.A. Pavón, J.M. Pérez Lara, B. Lázaro Ibiza, M. Rivas Mateos, P. Font Quer, S. Rivas Goday, J. Borja, J. Cuatrecasas, S. Rivas-Martínez) are integrated in the general colecion of the MAF Herbarium. Currently, 30% of the collections is digitalized and we continue to increase efforts to prioritize the full digitization of the collections by 2030.