G. Seidenfaden’s orchid herbarium

G. Seidenfaden’s orchid herbarium consists of c. 11,000 specimens of SE Asiatic orchids preserved in alcohol, all registered in a database. Almost 700 of these are type specimens. The material mostly originates from the collection of live Thai orchids in the Botanical Garden, and very often the same individuals are represented by sketches, line drawings and colour slides in the museum archives. Both collections were established by G. Seidenfaden (1908-2001, Denmark’s first ambassador in Thailand) and constitute the largest scientific liquid and living collections of Thai orchids outside Thailand. The liquid collection was an immensely important resource for Seidenfaden’s own research, and it currently plays a key role in the preparation of the orchid volume assembled by Henrik Ærenlund Pedersen for Flora of Thailand coordinated by Henrik Balslev, University of Århus.