The herbarium of the Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva, Switzerland, contains around 350,000 bryophyte specimens from all around the world, including 18,719 types (4346 mosses and 14372 liverworts and hornworts, figures that are still growing!) that have been databased and scanned via the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Global Plants Initiative funding (see Jstor and the Geneva Herbarium Catalogue. The bryophyte collection in G contains specimens from Europe and Switzerland, but also from the Neotropics, Asia and Africa, and particularly from Madagascar.  The herbarium of G has many historical holdings (from the mid-to late 1800’s and early 1900’s), with some recent collections from different geographic areas or focused on specific taxa (e.g Grimmia and Dicranum), based on collections made by the G herbarium curators, its associated researchers or on the collections that were gifted to the herbarium by bryologists or collectors.

The herbarium of G contains mostly historical collections from Madagascar. Based on the historical exchange system and collaborations at the time with French bryologists, many of the G Madagascar specimens are duplicates of or are complementary to the holdings in PC. The amount of Madagascar material in G is estimated to be about 4000 specimens of which 4 hornwort types, 98 moss types and 263 hepatics types, for names based on Madagascar material, have been databased, although all these figures may rise during the course of the MadBryo project. Recent collections of bryophytes have been made in Madagascar (P. Geissler) in link with expeditions to Madagascar organised by the CJBG, in collaboration with Malagasy and other partners. G also contains a small but unquantified amount of material that has yet to be processed (mounted and determined) and that is therefore not yet accessioned in the herbarium. All the Madagascar material from G will be databased as part of the current project and the non-accessioned material will be treated and integrated into the collection.