Sree Narayana College, Kollam

The Sree Narayana College Herbarium (Index Herbariorum code: SNCH) is situated at Sree Narayana College, Kollam, Kerala, India, as part of the college's Department of Botany, established in 1949. It focuses on discovering, describing, monitoring, surveying, naming and classifying Kerala's plants, particularly the flora of Kollam and Pathanamthitta districts. The herbarium is one of the largest in Kerala, holding about 7,000 specimens, of which around 3,500 have been digitized by 2023. It operates the Botanical Information Service (BIS), an outreach programme offering plant authentication and voucher specimen submission. The herbarium expanded significantly from 1985 through a Botanical Survey of India-funded project led by Prof. N. Ravi and N. Anilkumar, resulting in the Flora of Pathanamthitta collection of about 3,500 specimens. Further growth came via a UGC project on Cyperaceae taxonomy, field explorations, and specimen exchanges with botanists such as D. Devarajan, K. Rajappan, and R. Vasudevan Nair. These efforts led to the discovery of 32 new plant species and publication of two books and 55 research articles. Since 2016, the herbarium has had a dedicated Curator, and by 2025 it houses over 8,000 specimens, mainly from the southern Western Ghats.Physical facilities include a stereomicroscope, digital scanner, taxonomic journals, maps, and plant presses, supported by a full-time Herbarium Keeper.