The Herbarium of the University of Vienna (Index Herbariorum Acronym WU) represents one of the largest collections of its kind being purely university bound and holds about 1.5 million objects. After the botanical collections of the Austrian empire in Vienna were transferred to the Natural History Museum of Vienna a university herbarium was initiated de novo by Prof. A. Kerner von Marilaun director of the botanical institute in 1879. Collections cover all groups of organisms curated traditionally at botanical institutes from plants, algae, lichens to fungi worldwide.