The Kew Herbarium represent reference collections with many and varied functions including identification, research and education. The herbarium of Royal Botanic Gardens has a central role for research on plant and mycological biodiversity on earth, with 7 million specimens, including approximately 350,000 type specimens.

It founded in 1853 with combining of several formerly private collections, such as Sir William Hooker's, George Bentham's and M J. Berkeley's mycological herbarium. The collections include the personal herbaria of some of Britain's most celebrated scientists and explorers of the past. Charles Darwin, Joseph Hooker, David Livingstone, John Hanning Speke, Richard Spruce, Ernest 'Chinese' Wilson and Miles Joseph Berkeley are just a few of the famous names whose collections can still be studied in the Herbarium.