Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Open every day 10am-6pm
(except Christmas Day)
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Te Papa’s botanical collections and research encompass marine algae (seaweeds), lichens, mosses, liverworts, lycophytes, ferns, and seed plants.
The definitive visual guide for anyone wanting to understand, identify and distinguish 201 of the most commonly encountered species of ferns and lycophytes found across Aotearoa.
Nancy Adams (1926–2007) was one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most notable botanists and a talented artist. One of Te Papa’s most prolific botany collectors of all time, she also painted and drew an incredible number of botanical illustrations. She used her artwork to produce important books about Aotearoa New Zealand’s flora, including seaweeds, flowers, trees, and alpine plants.
There are over 100 species of orchids in Aotearoa New Zealand and come in a variety of shapes, colours, and dimensions. They thrive in diverse habitats across the country. Take a look at Te Papa's research and work with orchids as well as highlights from our collections.
Ferns are so prominent in Aotearoa New Zealand, we even wear them on our sporting uniforms. From botany research to citizen science, pressed-fern books of the 1800s to collecting All Blacks and tourism memorabilia, our collectors and curators spend a lot of time with ferns.
As a group of plants, macro-algae (or seaweeds) are little known and are often disregarded, but not by Nancy Adams.
Of the 3322 specimens she collected for Te Papa’s herbarium, over two thirds – 2285 – are algae.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s extensive coastline is home to hugely diverse and luxuriant seaweed flora. Over the last 100 years, a significant number of women have contributed to the study of our macro-algae and showed a passion for the botanical world from an early age.
Where can you find harakeke outside Aotearoa New Zealand? What species of forget-me-not live on Banks Peninsula? Answering these questions is now a lot easier because our herbarium’s botanical specimen data have been released on the world’s biggest database of living things, GBIF.
In 2022-23, Te Papa Research Scientist Lara Shepherd and Botany Curator Leon Perrie embarked on a project with Manaaki Whenua’s David Glenny to re-assess the number of species of speargrass in Aotearoa New Zealand. The ferociously spiky speargrasses are some of our most distinctive plants and an iconic feature of New Zealand’s high country, especially when flowering. Read their blogs to find out about their discoveries, how to collect the pointy fauna safely, and other specimens they met along the way.
Read about some of her findings and challenges our Botany Curators find while researching and collecting native New Zealand forget-me-nots.
Hear botanists and researchers discuss the shifting politics of collecting and classifying plants, from both Māori and Pākehā perspectives.
A single specimen of toromiro – a close relative of our own kōwhai and extinct in the wild – has been discovered in our botany collection, where it’s been kept safe for 150 years.
A new species of liverwort has just been identified in Wellington and named after local amateur botanist Rodney Lewington (1935–2018). Botanist Lara Shepherd tells us more about liverworts and Rodney’s contribution to New Zealand botany.
Botanical artist Audrey Eagle, author of the Montana medal-winning ‘Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand’, talks about her remarkable life and work.
When an incredibly rare native tree – the Bartlett’s rātā – flowered for the first time in a quarter-century, Botany curator Carlos Lehnebach was ready with his tweezers.
