Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada National Collection of Vascular Plants (AAFC-DAO)

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) maintains a National Collection of Vascular Plants, internationally known by the acronym DAO (for Department of Agriculture, Ottawa). Located on AAFC's Central Experimental Farm, it is the largest collection of its kind in Canada. Properly called a herbarium, it includes 1.5 million irreplaceable specimens protected in a climate-controlled environment. When adequately protected from moisture and pests, dried specimens can last for hundreds of years in the herbarium. This is a tremendous resource that allows identification of plants from anywhere in Canada and supports research on plant classification worldwide. DAO is working to digitize its holdings and make them accessible online. Datasets will be added and updated as this work progresses. Refer to our website for more information https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/agricultural-science-and-innovation/agriculture-and-agri-food-research-centres-and-collections/national-collection-vascular-plants-dao

Biodiversity Data Manager: Heather Cole, heather.cole@agr.gc.ca
Collection Manager: Shannon Asencio, shannon.asencio@AGR.GC.CA
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 27 November 2023
IPT / DwC-A Source:
AAFCDAO-DwC-import-2023
Digital Metadata: EML File
Rights Holder: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Cite this collection:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada National Collection of Vascular Plants. Occurrence dataset (ID: 79a3c3a0-da85-4064-9ed8-7631e422508c) accessed via the New Brunswick Museum Collections Portal, /portal, 2024-05-03).
Collection Statistics
  • 120 specimen records
  • 21 (18%) georeferenced
  • 120 (100%) identified to species
  • 1 families
  • 2 genera
  • 5 species
  • 9 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
Show Geographic Distribution
Show Family Distribution