For curators, instructors and field botanists
Every herbarium specimen of a plant, in one search.
Type a plant name — typos, old synonyms and common names are handled. Specimen Finder pulls the matching specimen records from GBIF, maps them, shows which institutions hold them, and exports clean Darwin Core CSV.
Free account: 3 saved searches. Pro: unlimited, batch lists and exports for $5/month. Cancel any time.
How it works
- Type a name. “Trilium grandiflorm” gets you “Did you mean Trillium grandiflorum?”. “Aster novae-angliae” is resolved to its accepted name, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, so records filed under either name are included.
- Narrow it down. Filter by country, state or province, holding institution, year range, imaged specimens only, and record type.
- Use the records. See them on a map, add private notes, then export Darwin Core CSV with a ready-to-paste GBIF citation.
Built for three jobs
Collections staff & researchers
See which herbaria hold a taxon and how many sheets are imaged before you write a loan request. Filter to one institution or a date window and export with catalogue numbers and occurrence IDs.
Instructors
Paste the class species list (Pro). Every name is matched against the GBIF backbone with a progress bar, misspellings are flagged with suggestions, and the whole list exports as one CSV.
Native-plant trip planners
Filter to your state, map historical collection localities and dates, and keep private notes on the records worth revisiting.
Free vs Pro
| Feature | Free browser tool | Free account | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0, no sign-up | $0 | $5 / month, cancel any time |
| Scientific & common names, typo and synonym handling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Map of specimen localities | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Photo identification, care info, data-quality flags | ✓ | — | — |
| Records per search | 300 | 100 | 1,000 |
| Filters: country, state, institution, years, imaged, record type | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Institution / decade / country summary | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Saved searches with private notes | — | 3 | Unlimited |
| Private per-record annotations | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Batch species list with progress | — | — | ✓ |
| Darwin Core CSV & JSON export | Basic CSV | — | ✓ |
| GBIF citation text | — | ✓ | ✓ |
Where the data comes from
All specimen records come live from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) API, where herbaria and museums publish them. Names are matched against the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Records keep their publisher’s licence, and exports include the license, rightsHolder and datasetKey of every row, plus citation text. Specimen Finder Pro charges for the hosted workflow (saving, batching, exporting), not for the data, and is not affiliated with GBIF.