Nine plant specimens on a black background
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Botany

Te Papa’s botanical collections and research encompass marine algae (seaweeds), lichens, mosses, liverworts, lycophytes, ferns, and seed plants.

  • The underside of a fern frond
    Ferns in New Zealand and the Pacific

    Ferns in New Zealand and the Pacific

    Ferns are so prominent in Aotearoa New Zealand, we even wear them on our sporting uniforms. From botany research to citizen science, pressed-fern books of the 1800s to collecting All Blacks and tourism memorabilia, our collectors and curators spend a lot of time with ferns.

  • A patch of white flowers each with five petals
    Blogs about forget-me-nots (Myosotis)

    Blogs about forget-me-nots (Myosotis)

    Read about some of her findings and challenges our Botany Curators find while researching and collecting native New Zealand forget-me-nots.

  • Carlos lies on the ground with his magnifying equipment on his head, surrounded by trees, with a big grin on his face
    A 10-year hunt for a tiny parasitic ghost orchid

    A 10-year hunt for a tiny parasitic ghost orchid

    Would you have the patience to spend 10 years trying to find something practically invisible? Botanist Carlos Lehnebach recently discovered his ‘holy grail’ – a collection of tiny ghost orchids in the Wellington region.

  • Dried plants on card
    Listen: The Politics of Collecting – from Banks and Solander to Today

    Listen: The Politics of Collecting – from Banks and Solander to Today

    Hear botanists and researchers discuss the shifting politics of collecting and classifying plants, from both Māori and Pākehā perspectives.

  • A lady in a lab coat bent over a dried plant, she's holding tweezers
    Captain Cook’s 150-year-old kōwhai specimens uncover Rapa Nui (Easter Island) secrets

    Captain Cook’s 150-year-old kōwhai specimens uncover Rapa Nui (Easter Island) secrets

    A single specimen of toromiro – a close relative of our own kōwhai and extinct in the wild – has been discovered in our botany collection, where it’s been kept safe for 150 years.

  • An image of a plant under a microscope
    A new liverwort species for Wellington

    A new liverwort species for Wellington

    A new species of liverwort has just been identified in Wellington and named after local amateur botanist Rodney Lewington (1935–2018). Botanist Lara Shepherd tells us more about liverworts and Rodney’s contribution to New Zealand botany.

  • The Essential Audrey Eagle: Botanical Art of New Zealand - book cover
    Meet Audrey Eagle, botanical artist

    Meet Audrey Eagle, botanical artist

    Botanical artist Audrey Eagle, author of the Montana medal-winning ‘Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand’, talks about her remarkable life and work.

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    Cross-pollination experiments with one of New Zealand’s rarest trees

    Cross-pollination experiments with one of New Zealand’s rarest trees

    When an incredibly rare native tree – the Bartlett’s rātā – flowered for the first time in a quarter-century, Botany curator Carlos Lehnebach was ready with his tweezers.