Scientific research by Museum botany staff centers on identification, classification, evolutionary history and conservation of plants.

Plant specimens are used for scientific study, exhibition and education. The department's greenhouse, located on the roof of the Museum, contains a prestigious, living collection of quillworts from around the world.

The department also has a modern light microscope facility and is developing a molecular laboratory for the study of plant evolution and biodiversity.

The Herbarium had its beginnings in 1852 with the founding of the German-English Academy. Dried plants that were collected and preserved for study by the Academy were placed under the care of the Wisconsin Natural History Society in 1857. In 1883, the Milwaukee Public Museum received the Society's entire botanical collection totaling over 5,000 botanical specimens.

Today, the museum's herbarium houses approximately 250,000 specimens of preserved plants and plant material. Algae, fungi, lichens, liverworts, mosses, ferns, fern-allies and flowering plants comprise the bulk of the collection, with smaller collections of seeds, cones, insect galls and wood specimens.

Important Collections:

• Charles E. Monroe Aster collection.
• Huron H. Smith Ethnobotanical collection.
• Herman E. Hayward Black Hills of South Dakota collection
• Albert M. Fuller Rubus of Eastern North America collection
• Emil P. Kruschke Crataegus collection.