Ruiz & Pavón herbarium

The Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB) maintains a collection of herbarium specimens from the Spanish expeditions which explored overseas colonies in late eighteenth century. These collections were ceded (in deposit) to IBB by the Real Acadèmia de Ciències i Arts de Barcelona (RACAB) in 1925, which, in turn, had acquired them from the Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Madrid.

The Ruiz & Pavón herbarium was produced thanks to the botanical expedition called Expedición Botánica al Virrenaito de Perú y Chile (1777-1788). This expedition was led by Hipólito Ruiz (1754-1815) as chief botanist, Jose Pavón (1754-1844) and Joseph Dombey (1742-1794) as companions, and by the artists Joseph Brunete and Isidro Gálvez. Sometime later, Juan Tafalla (1755-1811) joined the expedition.

In 1788 the Ruiz & Pavón expedition came back to Spain with thousands of herbarium specimens, plates and numerous natural objects. Dombey, returned in 1784 while Tafalla was still working in Peru and Ecuador, exploring Guayaquil (1799-1802) and the Equatorial Andes.

The Ruiz & Pavón herbarium consists of 695 sheets, all listed in the catalogue ceded by the RACAB. Currently these sheets are grouped into 23 boxes and arranged by families according to RACAB’s catalogue number. Only 100 sheets were dated, being collected between the years 1778 and 1809. The collection is fully computerized and thanks to the project LAPI (Latin American Plants Initiative) 243 sheets of nomenclatural interest were digitized.

 
Online queries
 

This collection is available at GBIF on the following link (exportation date: November 2019). Although the collection is fully computerized in this portal cannot be found: 3 specimens only identified to the family level.

  • 695 specimens (99.57%)
  • 73 type specimens
  • 247 specimens with images (35.38%)
 
References
  • Ibáñez. N. 2006. Estudis sobre cinc herbaris històrics de l’Institut Botànic de Barcelona. Doctoral thesis. Universitat de Barcelona. Digital.CSIC
  • Ibáñez, N., Montserrat, J. M. & Soriano, I. 2006. Collections from the Royal Spanish Expeditions to Latin America in the Botanic Institute of Barcelona (BC). Willdenowia 36: 595–599. Digital.CSIC
  • Ibáñez, N. 2011. El Herbario BC (Institut Botànic de Barcelona) y el proyecto Global Plants Initiative (GPI): digitalización de ejemplares tipo. Boletín de la Asociación de Herbarios Ibero-Macaronésicos 12–13 : 21–23. Digital.CSIC
  • Nualart, N. & Ibáñez, N. 2016. Las colecciones históricas del Herbario BC (Instituto Botánico de Barcelona). Boletín de la Asociación de Herbarios Iberico-Macaronésicos 17 : 10–18. Digital.CSIC