The museum’s botany collections comprise the nationally and internationally important F.A. Lees collection and W.A. Sledge collection of flowering plants and other nationally important lichen and bryophyte collections totalling approximately 60,000 specimens. The collection is of national importance on account of its size, the number of voucher specimens used for published works, and because it contains nationally extinct species. The Hebden lichen collection also contains European material. These important reference collections are based on those made by local naturalists, and have a strong local provenance.