The Botanical Museum was established only in 1842, that is fairly late as compared to other Florentine Museums. Its establishment was arranged by Grand Duke Leopoldo II of Lorraine who profited of the expert help from the internationally famous botanist Filippo Parlatore (Palermo 1816 - Florence 1877). The latter enriched the small core of existing items by creating an Herbarium that he termed, from the very start, the "Central" Herbarium, thus clearly indicating his intention of transforming it into the most important Italian collection of its kind. As a matter of fact, the Herbarium of Florence is one of the richest in Italy and one of best ones in the world. Parlatore achieved this extraordinary result by donating his own private herbarium and by skilfully managing purchases and exchanges.

Of particular importance were the Cesalpino, Micheli-Targioni and Webb (the latter comprised almost 80,000 plants) collections that were added to the ones that already existed in the museum in the mid- 1 9th century.

The collection was further enriched by other precious plant sets in the 20th century (Tropical Herbarium, for example). The whole collection now takes up 12 large rooms of the Botanical Institute of the University of Florence and displays nearly 4 million examples of plants. A small rooms exhibits some examples and objects that are particularly interesting from the scientific and historical point of view, such as examples of useful plants, products from vegetable origin, models of plants in wax or chalk and old herbariums.

Of note are also the superb models in wax by the famous artists Calamai and Tortori (early 19th century) and the Cesalpine Herbarium of 1563, which is one of the oldest in the world.

The museum is now accessible to disabled people. In the future it will be possible to organise guided tours for groups.