The history of the herbarium collection of the Botanical Faculty of Samarkand State University in 1927 is associated with the name of the First Rector of Samarkand State University, Professor N.A. Merkulovich. The herbarium collection is located in the building of the Faculty of Biology of Samarkand State University. This collection includes 20,000 herbarium specimens, of which 16,000 scientific and 4,000 educational and methodical herbariums.

      In 1927-1941. when creating the herbarium fund, the first herbarium specimens were collected by N.A. Merkulovich, M.G. Popov, K.Z. Zakirov, E.I. Proskoryakov, O.F. Gazem, G.A. Sergeeva, G.S. Chugaeva, H. Eshonkulov, M. Akhmedov, G. Shodiev, V. Romanenko and other scientists from the regions of our republic and neighboring republics.

   

To collect the herbarium collection, scientific expeditions were organized to a number of regions together with professors and teachers of SamSU, doctoral students, researchers and talented students.

      Basically, they were transferred to the Zeravshan valley and partly to the southern and eastern regions of our republic. According to the historical sources of the university, the main part of the herbarium collections are products of 4 large Angren, Zarafshan, Pamir-Aloy and Hisar expeditions. The samples collected during these expeditions were of great importance for replenishing the herbarium fund. Most of the scientific herbarium is the flora of the Zeravshan valley.

      In 1938, Professor M.G. Popov was invited to Samarkand State University from Saratov State University. Popov made a great contribution to the enrichment and development of the herbarium collection. Together with SamSU scientists, the professor collected more than 500 herbarium specimens and systematically analyzed them.

      Academician K.Z. Zakirov, prof. ON. Merkulovich and M.G. Popov collected topical herbariums. These collections are old and rare, they were collected at the beginning of the 20th century. On their basis, a taxonomic division of herbariums was formed.

      Professor N.A. Merkulovich (1927-1930) scientific articles and monographs on several plant families based on materials from expeditions organized in Zarafshan, Pamir-Oloy, Hisar, Hazrati-Sultan and many collected herbarium data. At the same time, the scientist was one of the first to conduct research on the analysis of the flora of Uzbekistan and was the editor of the first volume of the major capital work of our Republic “Flora of Uzbekistan”.

Собранный гербарный фонд послужил основой для создания новых родов и видов. Большинство этих гербариев были подарены Институту ботаники РАН и гербарному фонду Института ботаники им. В. Л. Комарова (Санкт-Петербург).

Most of the herbarium belongs to Academician K.Z. Zakirov. In 1937-1941, the young scientist worked with the famous florist, taxonomist, florigeneticist, botanist-geographer M.G. Popov. Together with Professor M.G. Popov Kadyr Zokirovich began a detailed study of the flora of the Zaravshan river basin and discovered a number of new species. First, in 1938 he opened a new type of shore series, named after his teacher - Salsola Merkuloviczi Zak. called it. At the same time, Kadyr Zokirovich discovered a number of new species from the genera Heterocerium, Lappula, Rochelia, Onosma. This information was published in the collection of scientific works of the university. This new species was included in Volume II of the Flora of Uzbekistan. Later, he deeply studied the Boraginaceae family, which is considered very rich in species, and scientifically substantiated the existence of 4 more tribes in addition to the 6 known tribes of the Boraginaceae subfamily, as well as the transfer of some species from the Boraginaceae subfamily. Solenanthus family to Lindelofia family.

      By 2017-2022, at the initiative of the rector of Samarkand State University, much attention was paid to the collection of the historical herbarium of SamSU. For this rare treasure, stored in several classrooms of the Faculty of Biology, a separate building was created, called the Herbarium-Botanical Research Laboratory of SamSU. In addition, the laboratories "Palinology", "Mycology", "Briology and Lichenology" were created at the laboratory. These laboratories are distinguished by the fact that they were created for the first time in the country. In 2021, the SamSU herbarium was included in the list of 3100 "Herba SamDU" on the international herbarium platform created in the USA as a historical rarity.