Know Before You Go: Information and helpful hints for your next visit
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Plant Records Database  

Search, browse, and learn more about the plants in the Arboretum’s living collections

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BRAHMS Online

You can search, browse, and learn more about the plants in The Morton Arboretum’s living collections by visiting the BRAHMS Online website.

This website, based on the BRAHMS integrated collections software developed at Oxford University and customized by Oxford and Arboretum staff, is a constantly evolving project. BRAHMS Online (BOL) encompasses nearly 4,000 taxa and more than 20,000 inventoried plants and it serves as a persistent record of the work of Arboretum experts dating back to 1922.

vPlants

Herbarium specimens can currently be searched via the vPlants website. This comprehensive site contains data for more than 120,000 plant specimens records from more than 30 institutions across the Chicago region.

How you can use these databases:

  • Learn where to find a particular plant or species on The Morton Arboretum grounds.
  • Get a quick idea of what a plant looks like. Many Arboretum Herbarium specimens have been scanned, and images of living plants are available online.
  • Learn when plants flower in the Chicago region. The herbarium specimens have information that can reveal patterns in the presence of flowers, fruits, buds, and vegetation.
  • Study the distribution of plants in the Chicago region. Many of the species in our databases indicate their geographic range, so you can see roughly where they can be found and how that may have changed over time.