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Hieracrium, commonly known as Hawkweeds, are a large genus in the Compositae (Asteraceae). There are around 250 species recorded as growing in Britain and Ireland.

The complex reproductive history of Hieracium, where many reproduce asexually or are clones of the mother plant, can make defining species a difficult process. Estimates for the number of species in Hieracium globally can vary from the ~800 to serveral thousand.

The collections from Britain and Ireland held within the RBGE Herbarium are estimated to number over 500,000 specimens of cryptogams (algae, fungi, lichens and mosses), ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants. In 2021 we began to increase our in-house digitisation capacity with the aim of completing the digitisation of its 3 million specimens in a 5-year programme (2021-2025). The next series of expeditions seek to complement this body of work by enriching the basic online catalogue records produced by the in-house digitisation team with specimen label data.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s extensive Herbarium numbers nearly three million specimens representing half to two thirds of the world's flora. It is considered a leading botanical collection, and every year many researchers from around the world visit to study our specimens.