The phycological collection of the Herbarium of the Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, SPF, started in the 1950's
with the work of Aylthon Brandão Joly. For 20 years Prof. Joly and his students developed and curated the collection of marine algae.
From 1970 on, Prof. Eurico Cabral de Oliveira, one of Joly's students, together with his own students, assumed this task. The SPF
herbarium holds one of the largest collection of seaweeds in Latin America, being specialized in tropical species, mainly from all
over the Brazilian littoral. Nevertheless it also includes seaweeds from about 30 countries. The collection holds over 1500 species:
280 Chlorophyta, 300 Phaeophyceae and 950 Rhodophyta, including 72 types. The herbarium exchanges material with many other herbaria in
the world and is open to utilization worldwide.
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