Department of Systematics, Biodiversity and Evolution of Plants (with Herbarium)
Welcome to our department!
"Plant systematics" is one of the oldest disciplines at the University of Göttingen and is being taught there since the founding of the university in 1735.
The major research topics of our Department are evolution, phylogeny and taxonomy of flowering plants (poster). Our mission is to understand the patterns and processes of diversification of plants in space and time. We focus on evolutionary processes at the population and species level, and on interspecific relationships within genera. The role of reproductive and evelopmental biology for plant evolution is an important focus of our research. By analyzing asexual reproduction in plants we try to understand the evolutionary paradox of predominance of sex in nature. Our major model systems are Ranunculus (buttercups), Salix (willows), Xanthium (Asteraceae), and Rutaceae (the citrus family). Find out more about our current research projects.
Department members 2025 including herbarium volunteers
The Department is equipped with modern molecular, karyological and computer laboratories. We host an internationally renowned Herbarium (GOET) of about 800.000 specimens (including over 14,000 types) and research collections of living plants (c. 2.000).
New Curator of herbarium GOET
After 12 years (2013-2025) Dr. Marc Appelhans left the position as curator of the Herbarium GOET to become full Professor at the University of Jena. His successor is Dr. Salvatore Tomasello. We welcome him in our department and wish him all the best for this new task. For requests regarding the herbarium please contact Dr. Tomasello.
Dr. Salvatore Tomasello
+49 551 39 25757
salvatore.tomasello@uni-goettingen.de
find out more about Salvatore
News
The herbarium was again put to life - using stored biodiversity knowledge to analyse Archaeophytes
Archaeophytes were introduced into Central Europe before 1492 and form an important part of the current plant diversity. BSc student Marleen Schuster investigated the changes of archaeophyte abundance over the past 200 years in Germany. A total of 15 selected species were examined based on 3,149 herbarium records from the Göttingen Herbarium (GOET) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). By evaluating the herbarium vouchers and extracting the respective metadata, she observed a massive decrease for threatened species in Germany within the last 75 years, while the non-protected species increased in the same period. Changes in agricultural practices were the likely reasons for the decrease of biodiversity. The thesis can be found here (pdf).
Graduiertenkolleg - Evolutionäre Genomik: Folgen biodiverser Fortpflanzungssysteme
DFG fördert neues Graduiertenkolleg in der Biologie an der Universität Göttingen. Das GRK mit dem Titel „Evolutionary Genomics: Consequences of Biodiverse Reproductive Systems (EvoReSt)“ verfolgt einen interdisziplinären Ansatz, der die Evolution von Genomen unter verschiedenen Reproduktionsformen an Organismen aus dem gesamten „Tree of Life“ untersucht.
Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Elvira Hörandl
Pressemitteilung der Uni Göttingen
Welcome to lectures and courses
Our department is responsible for several lectures, courses and seminars for beginners as well as advanced students.
In summer we offer the module B.Bio127/210: Structure and diversity of plants including field trips.
Linum leonii (Linaceae) on Dörnberg, Kassel
If you are interested in our courses and seminars click here and/or check Exa/FlexNow.
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Info:
Prof. Elvira Hörandl
elvira.hoerandl@biologie.uni-goettingen.de
Tel.: +49 (0)551 39 27843
Termine n. Ü.
Herbarium curator
Dr. Salvatore Tomasello
+49 551 39 25757
salvatore.tomasello@uni-goettingen.de
Termine n. Ü.