HNTA Herbarium

The Hugh Nicholson - Tony Abbott Herbarium was included in the international register of herbaria with the acronym PCE. The herbarium was housed in the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife buildings at Beacon Hill in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve near Port Edward.

The vouchers in the herbarium were collected mainly from the Pondoland Centre of Endemism although others came from further afield. The collection included vouchers from the Oribi Gorge herbarium, the Mbumbazi herbarium and the Skyline herbarium (Hugh Nicholson's private collection) together with a large number of specimens collected by Tony Abbott and latterly, by Kate Grieve.

With support from Ezemvelo KZN Wildife and the Hugh Nicholson Trust, volunteer work was done over several years to update the collection and capture the details of all the vouchers electronically in the BRAHMS database. With the deterioration of conditions in the herbarium and the building in which it was housed, as well as the lack of electronic access, to safeguard its future the entire collection was incorporated into the Bews Herbarium at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg. The curator, Dr Benny Bytebier, who organised the transfer, has ensured that the specimens retain their PCE identity and they are reportedly now well utilised.