The herbarium of South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was established in 1927 by Chen Huanyong (or Chun Woon-young ), a renowned botanist and CAS academician.

As one of the three largest and most prestigious herbaria in China, IBSC has a collection of more than one million vascular plant specimens specialized in tropical and sub-tropical plants, including over 7,000 type specimens. The collection is still growing up by programmes of joint work, expeditions, gifts and exchanges with other institutes at home and abroad.

Research programmes at IBSC cover taxonomic and evolutionary studies on mosses and vascular plants, and the conservation of the rare and endangered species in tropical and subtropical areas.

The first English language botanical journal in China, Sunyatsenia, and the first local flora,Flora of Guangzhou were published by IBSC in 1930 and 1956 respectively. IBSC also finished compiling 27 volumes of Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae.

In order to meet the needs of development in science and society, we have been digitalizing all of our collections.