The Australian Tropical Herbarium (CNS) is a joint venture of the CSIRO, Australian and Queensland Governments and James Cook University. It boasts state of the art facilities and infrastructure for specimen processing and curation, photography, pest and climate control, and field, herbarium and laboratory research.

Research at the Herbarium covers a range of topics including tropical plant and fungal taxonomy and evolution, ethnobotany, ecology, climate change studies, development of identification tools, and regional ecosystem mapping.

The ATH collection, a fully databased and representative archive of preserved plant specimens that supports the Herbarium’s research and botanical information delivery programmes, is comprised of 161,363 specimens that are pressed, dried and mounted on herbarium sheets held in the Collection Room, 17,776 specimens that are preserved in 70% ethanol held in the Spirit Room, and 2,500 wood blocks.