The University of Dar es Salaam Herbarium (DSM) is a key academic herbarium in Tanzania, supporting botanical research, teaching, and biodiversity documentation at the country’s leading public university. Housed within the University of Dar es Salaam—primarily associated with the College of Natural and Applied Sciences—the herbarium serves as an essential reference collection for students, researchers, and visiting scientists.
The herbarium’s collections focus largely on the flora of Tanzania, with strong representation from coastal forests, miombo woodlands, montane and sub-montane forests, wetlands, and savanna ecosystems. Specimens provide permanent scientific vouchers for plant taxonomy, floristic studies, ecological research, and environmental impact assessments. The herbarium plays an important role in training undergraduate and postgraduate students in plant identification, herbarium methods, and field botany.
The University of Dar es Salaam Herbarium complements national collections such as the National Herbarium of Tanzania by contributing academic research collections and supporting studies on plant diversity, conservation status, land-use change, and climate impacts. Through collaboration with national, regional, and international partners, the herbarium helps strengthen botanical capacity and supports evidence-based conservation and sustainable natural resource management in Tanzania.
University of Dar es Salaam Herbarium. Occurrence dataset (ID: recordID) accessed via the East Africa Herbaria Portal Portal, eastafricaherbaria.net, 2026-03-25).
