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Living Collections
The Plant Records staff at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden maintains an electronic database of plants cultivated at the Garden (both past and present) and uses this information to provide display labels for our plants.
Since 1986, records for each accession in the living collection have been maintained electronically using Advanced Revelation software. In 1995, we converted our database to BG-BASE database software (currently version 5.0). Records of deceased plants that predate this time are available in handwritten journals.
As of January 1, 2003, the database contains 27,337 accessions, of which 14,368 are current. Accession detail on each taxa includes scientific and common names, accession numbers, quantity, pertinent information on wild provenance, location in the Garden, source and date of acquisition, synonyms, authorities, number of plants received, original seed or parent accession number, status of plant, taxonomic verification, and whether the plant was received as seed, cutting, or rooted material. Nomenclature largely follows the RHS Plant Finder.
The Plant Records staff also maintains a series of maps pinpointing planting locations.
The following statistics are current as of January 1, 2003:
Taxa at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
| Category | Number | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Species | 4,906 | 49 |
| Cultivars | 4,498 | 44 |
| Generic hybrids | 320 | 3 |
| Specific hybrids | 378 | 4 |
Provenance of Accessions
| Provenance | Number | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Wild origin | 572 | 4 |
| Garden origin | 10,735 | 75 |
| Unknown | 3,061 | 21 |
BBG's Plant Collection
All species, subspecies, varieties, hybrids and cultivars currently grown at BBG can be found in this searchable database.