Pax herbarium’s mission is to collect every plant – indigenous, naturalized or exotic – that grows in Nigeria. By doing so, we are serving the demand for people interested in traditional medicine, ethnotaxonomy and are preventing any false identification and misuse of plants.

Nigeria’s vegetation is very rich, from the mangroves in the Delta to the rain and tropical forest and to the savannah, there is a vast diversity of vegetation in Nigeria.

We make our collections from Natural forest, forest reserves, forest regrowth, farms, savanna and swampy areas of the Nigerian delta.

The carpological section of our herbarium deals with fruits and seeds. The specimens are preserved wet in preservatives in order to keep their morphology intact.  This section is very useful when it comes to the study of fruiting season, but we go beyond that in order to satisfy human curiosity for the use of fruits/seeds as drugs, food, cosmetics, insecticides and much more.

The voucher specimen section of the herbarium comprises of dried leaves, fruits, and flowers; pressed and mounted on a sheet of cardboard paper and arranged according to an acceptable system of classification. This section of the herbarium contains phytomedicinal and ecological information of plants.

We have made over 5000 collections from all over the country with a complete documentation of over 2000 plants in the herbarium card index, belonging to more than 900 species.

Students Industrial Training

IT students cultivating plants

During the course of the year, the Pax Herbarium admits up to 16 students to undergo industrial training (IT), which is part of the requirements for graduation for every student. As of the time of writing, we have 3 botany students from Kogi State University that are spending six months in the Herbarium, getting basic training in plant cultivation, identification and preservation. More students will come in the upcoming months from different universities from all over the country, ensuring a vast network of future graduates, that might one day become potential employees.

More students will come in the upcoming months from different universities from all over the country, ensuring a vast network of future graduates, that might one day become potential employees.

One of their duties while undergoing their training at Pax herbarium, is to prepare a seminar concerning a specific plant that they have studied and cultivated throughout their stay. This ensures a contribution towards the herbarium making the industrial training even more beneficial for both parties.

Written by Amadeus Stickl and Emmanuel Amodu