Our seed reference collection has more than 15.000 taxa Our reference collection of modern seeds has been continuously established since the 1970s and became property of the Senckenberg institution in 2017. Since 2015 Angel Blanco-Lapaz is maintaining the collection as lab- and collection manager.
The collection has grown meanwhile to more than 15.000 specimens mainly representing elements of the Near Eastern, Mediterranean and European floras. We also archive ancient archaeobotanical finds, which are particularly helpful to our master and PhD candidates learning seed identification.

Apart from that we also host the most comprehensive database of archaeobotanical remains from Near Eastern and Mediterranean archaeological sites, which is open access.

Our team is also active in developing new forms of interdisciplinarity.
The pictures show Dr. Özgür Çizer in the finisage of the artist Oliver Thie presenting his work on oat (Avena sativa) – Schattenlese – to an interested audience in Berlin.