We will consider loan requests from recognised institutes on behalf of colleagues and supervised students. We have digitised all our type specimens and many other specimens from our Collection. These high resolution images allow examination by viewing and downloading from our online Herbarium Catalogue.

As specimens are fragile and may be damaged in transit, all loan specimens are imaged before being sent out to requesting institute. We ask that loans are only requested where a visit is not possible and where a digitised image is not suitable. Specimens are normally issued for a period of 12 months.

Please check the online Herbarium Catalogue in the first instance and read our loans policy.

Each request should come from the Curator or Director of the researcher’s institution and should include the following information:

   - Name and status of researcher
   - Nature and scope of study
   - Taxa requested, including possible synonyms, with barcodes from our online catalogue if found
   - Basionyms and currently accepted name of any type specimens requested
   - Geographical scope of specimens requested
   - Information on whether the specimens are requested for morphological examination only
   - In the case of sample requests please read our Destructive Sampling policy

Loan requests can be addressed to:

Curator, Herbarium
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
20A Inverleith Row
Edinburgh
EH3 5LR

The request can also be sent as a pdf and emailed to us