(Catalog last updated 25 June 2003)

The Swiss Orchid Foundation is responsible for curating and making accessible the collections and library bequeathed by the late Dr. Jany Renz. The Orchid Foundation, Herbarium and Library are located at the Botanical Institute of the University of Basel, Schönbeinstrasse 6, Switzerland. The Collections have been bequeathed to the University, but they are maintained as a separate collection and are curated and managed by the Swiss Orchid Foundation. This is a charitable Foundation, funded entirely by privately raised grants, donations and organised events.

Resources of the Swiss Orchid Foundation

The Swiss Orchid Foundation was set up to care for an exceptionally rich botanical collection bequeathed to the University of Basel by the late Herr Dr Jany Renz. During his lifetime Dr Renz worked as a Director of 'Sandoz' (now amalgamated into 'Novartis'), but his passion was his research into the Orchidaceae. His Publications total almost 100 taxonomic and floristic articles, and he is particularly well-known in the field of nomenclature of European, Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern terrestrial orchids (especially in the genera Ophrys, Orchis, Dactylorhiza and Epipactis), and for his work on the genus Habenaria, which he was was revising world-wide. He contributed accounts of the Orchidaceae to several regional Floras, including the Flora Aegaea (1943), the Flora Iranica (1978), the Flora of Pakistan (1984), the Flora of Turkey (1984), the Flora of Guyana (1992), and (posthumously) the Flora of Bhutan (2002). His Herbarium contains approximately 25000 meticulously prepared specimens, collected from the early 1920's up until the late 1990's. These collections are of exceptionally high quality and value to science, and include many type specimens.

The entire Herbarium is now being databased and digital images made of each sheet. This database is being hosted by New York Botanical Garden, and will be updated as work progresses. It is possible to Search the Database alphabetically by genus and species, and to Build Queries on criteria such as genus, species, or other taxon, collector, collection number and date, country and locality (broadly defined), and to locate type specimens. Detailed locality data will not be posted on the website, and is removed from the labels on the specimen images (for reasons of conservation and safety of the localities). Further locality data and full size images (c. 6 megapixels: c. 2.5 megabytes) with unedited labels can be obtained by request.

Renz also bequeathed a comprehensive Library of Orchid Literature, including over 3000 books, numerous reprints and an irreplaceable collection of antique and folio books. The Library is an unique collection which complements the Herbarium as a research resource. The Living Collection, used by Renz as a research collection, currently contains about 1300 species (2400 specimens), and is maintained by the Botanical Garden of the University: it is amongst the best collections of Orchid species in Europe.

All inquiries about the data and specimens should be directed to Dr. David Du Puy, Curator of Jany Renz Herbarium.