Identifications

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria provides a range of identification services for plants and fungi. Successful identification of material relies on access to the extensive botanical library and 1.5 million preserved specimens that make up the State Botanical Collection, held at the National Herbarium of Victoria.

Identification services are provided to government agencies, consultants, and the general public. 

Our identification services do not provide:

  • medical advice, though we will attempt to identify plants suspected in poisonings
  • identifications based on images alone
  • identifications of agricultural plant cultivars
  • identifications of wood and timber
  • identifications of plant pests and diseases
  • identifications of tree roots
  • advice on weed control and herbicide use
  • general gardening advice
  • commercial recommendations, for example in relation to availability of plants for horticulture

Further details about requesting the identification of plants or fungi are available on the following pages: