The word 'herbarium' (Latin: hortus siccus—literally meaning "dry garden") does not relate to herbs or the culinary world. Instead, it is a unique repository of plant samples preserved over time, usually in the form of dried and pressed plant material. As fragile things meant for long-term storage, each specimen is carefully packed in a plant press and dried in an oven. It is then mounted on board, labelled, and filed in a special folder.

This year marks the centenary (1925–2025) of the establishment of the University of Pretoria (UP) H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt Herbarium—the fourth-largest university herbarium in South Africa and home to nearly 130,000 plant specimens. The Herbarium, which is a collection of dried plant species as well as liquid-preserved plant material, is a unique, irreplaceable resource for botanical research. The specimens contained in the Herbarium provide researchers with an archival record of specific plants at a particular location and moment in time.

As part of UP’s GLAM partnership (an initiative that brings together UP’s gardens, libraries, archives, and museums), the Herbarium offers elements of all aspects of GLAM as an archive of botanical specimens. A small specialist library containing plant identification literature, field guides, dictionaries, scientific books, and an extensive collection of geographical maps (recently gifted to Special Collections) also forms part of the Herbarium’s reference records.

The Herbarium’s collection consists mainly of specimens indigenous to South Africa. The oldest specimen is thought to date back to 1836. The plant specimens are mostly vascular plants but also include macrofungi. The Herbarium houses a large collection of liquid-preserved plant material, mainly originating from the Forest, Succulent Karoo, Grassland, and Savanna Biomes of southern Africa. Key focal areas include the Kalahari region, Pondoland, Maputaland, and Sekhukhuneland. It also serves as an archival repository for voucher specimens of plants used in research. The National Herbarium in Pretoria, the KwaZulu-Natal Herbarium, and the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (United Kingdom), among others, assist with plant identifications.

The Herbarium was established in 1925 by Prof. C.E.B. Bremekamp, the Head of the Department of Botany. In November 1975, it was renamed in honour of Prof. H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt. He was responsible for adding more than 2,300 species to the collection and was well known for his contributions to South African botanical thought and research. He was both a student at UP (when it was still known as the Transvaal University College or TUC) and instrumental in expanding the Herbarium together with Prof. Bremekamp in the 1920s. After completing work and research at other institutions in both South Africa and the United Kingdom, he returned to teach in the Department of Botany at UP from 1944 until his retirement in 1963.

Specimens are carefully treated, dried, and stored under controlled conditions to aid their preservation. While the collection is officially one hundred years old, it is by no means a static or merely historic collection of specimens. Each year, students and staff of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences (including those from Zoology, Entomology, FABI and Onderstepoort) add hundreds of new specimens to the Herbarium, making it a growing library of plant knowledge. In addition, the Herbarium plays an active role in teaching, learning, and research across several departments and faculties, giving both undergraduate and postgraduate students hands-on experience in plant systematics and evolution.

According to Dr. Kenneth Oberlander, Curator of the Schweickerdt Herbarium, “While almost all the collection has been scanned and preserved digitally, thanks to collaboration with the Natural Science Collections Facility, the value of tangible and physical specimens cannot be underestimated, as they offer unique information that cannot be captured digitally.” He further stated that one of the aims of the Herbarium is to remain interactive and actively involved in the education and research of students and scholars in Plant Sciences, making it available to all within the university.

The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences will be celebrating the centenary of the Herbarium throughout 2025 in a variety of ways. In addition, belated celebrations will be held for a key GLAM partner, the University of Pretoria’s Botanical Gardens, which also reached its centenary during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is fitting to combine the commemorations of these two resources within the Faculty, as they embody complementary contributions and values for teaching and research, as well as serving as unique university repositories. A highlight of the centenary year will be an international symposium planned for March 2025, attended by both local and international scientists. The focus of the symposium will be on UP’s botanical collections, and their contributions to teaching, research, and community engagement at the University of Pretoria and beyond.

GLAMs within the University of Pretoria, such as the Herbarium and Botanical Gardens, are critical research resources—not just for botanical or plant material studies but also as integral university repositories. These unique, finite collections hold primary materials, from dried and labelled plant specimens to living specimens. Essentially, the UP Herbarium is an organised archive or library of dried plants, and the aim is to keep it sustainable for another 100 years, continuously adding to its collections for future generations.