Herbarium specimens of Dianthus (Caryophyllaceae) deposited in herbarium of National Museum in Prague (PR)

The genus Dianthus is one of specious group of vascular plants with centre of diversity in warm and dry areas of Eurasia, which undergone recent explosive radiation. The genus now comprises ca 340 species and is distributed over all Eurasia, N and S Africa and Arctic Nord America. Herbarium of National Museum in Prague (PR) holds over 9000 herbarium specimens from 64 countries belonging to 260 species and infraspecific taxa. Besides Czech Republic and Slovakia (2520 and 1460 specimens respectively) the best represented countries are North Macedonia (457), Austria (402), Italy (380), Romania (312), France (291), Ukraine (286), Bulgaria (283), Bosnia and Hercegovina (228), Hungary (202) and Russia (169). The most diligent collectors are F. Weber (673), I. Klášterský (381), M. Deyl (348), J. Dostál (300), K. Vandas (261), J. Soják 185), V. Vašák (170), J. Klika (121), J. Chrtek & A. Chrtková (120), and I. Klášterský & M. Deyl (112). These ten collectors collected nearly 1/3 of whole material. In total, there are presented herbarium specimens of more than 1400 collectors. The most often collected species are common Central European species  Dianthus carthusianorum (1776 specimens), Dianthus deltoides (657 specimens) and Dianthus armeria (398 specimens) also representing ca 1/3 of whole material.