The herbarium of Aarhus University houses about 750,000 specimens of dried and pressed plants, collected in many different countries throughout the world. The geographic emphasis of the herbarium - and of the research of the department in general - is tropical South America, Southeast Asia, and the Sahel region in Africa, particularly Ecuador, Thailand, Senegal and Burkina Faso.

The plant groups studied in the department are especially palms, grasses, legumes, pteridophytes, and the ginger family and the collections of those families are therefore particularly well represented in the herbarium. The specimens are kept in the basement and ground floors of the building, and they are placed in cabinets with about nine kilometers of shelf-space. Other parts of the building include laboratory space for the staff and work space for students and visitors.

The herbarium participates in the international world-wide network of herbaria. We have exchange and loan-relations on a regular basis with about 340 other herbaria. The researchers working in the Aarhus herbarium have access to a world-wide system of plant-collections through this network. In the same way the material kept in the Aarhus herbarium is accessible to researchers throughout the world.

The herbarium of Aarhus University with the standard abbreviation AAU was established in 1963 and its present home was constructed in 1987. The compacter basement is constructed to house a million specimens, whilst the first floor is prepared to house another million.