DonateAccredited & Working Collections
Accredited Member
American Alliance of Museums
Widely regarded as a model botanic garden, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is a living museum and a member of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), dedicated to research, education, and conservation of California’s native plants.
As an accredited museum and botanic garden, the Garden differentiates itself from being just another beautiful place with open space and pretty flowers. Leveraging our six natural history collections, our team of scientists, horticulturists, and enthusiasts are actively examining and investigating our natural world so we can prescribe solutions that harness biodiversity — across California and beyond.
Collections
Living Collection
As an AAM-accredited collection, our Living Collection features nearly a thousand different species of plants from throughout the state of California and the California Floristic Province.
Herbarium
The Clifton Smith Herbarium, the Lichenarium, and the Fungarium serve as the foundation for understanding and studying global biodiversity. Together they are one of the Garden’s AAM-accredited collections.
Library
The Archives and Blaksley Library is an AAM-accredited collection and houses over 15,000 books, digital media, journals, and more on all aspects of plant science with an emphasis on the flora of California and its offshore islands.
Seed Bank
Ensuring California’s native plants don’t go extinct, our Conservation Seed Bank preserves our collection of seeds so they can be used in research, conservation, and restoration work at the Garden and throughout California.
Tissue Bank
As one of our working collections, our Tissue Bank aims to preserve the raw material from which researchers can isolate genomic DNA for use in a variety of investigations.
Bugs
To support the Garden’s work, we collect, identify, preserve, and share invertebrate specimens collected across California for a variety of conservation and restoration projects.
Plant Introductions
Since the 1950’s the Garden has introduced more than 30 native plant cultivars to the horticultural trade. Through this program, we encourage everyone to grow native plants by offering beautiful, hardy, and climate-adapted options perfectly suited for California gardens.