This site displays scanned images of a collection of cleared leaf samples of extant plants from all over the world which are stored in the Paleobotanical Laboratory of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ibaraki, Japan. The collection comprises leaves of various angiosperms and rare gymnosperms and pteridophytes. These slides were created by two paleobotanists, Dr. Toshimasa Tanai of Hokkaido University (ca. 3000 slides) and Dr. Kazuhiko Uemura of the National Museum of Nature and Science (ca. 1500 slides), in order to understand the morphological characteristics of extant plant genera and/or species for the application in identification of fossil leaf remains.
You can freely use this site for personal purposes. Please also enjoy seeing the beautiful architecture of plant leaves.
Any questions or comments regarding this site or specimens are welcome: yabeatsu(at)kahaku.go.jp