Facilities
Herbarium
The Ghana Herbarium (GC) hosted at the department is the largest herbarium in Ghana with over 100,000 specimen collections. It is, arguably, the best in West Africa. The herbarium collection includes algae, bryophytes, pteridophytes, fungi and higher plants. There are also carpological collections, fossil plant collections and other types of ancillary collections. The herbarium has collections from many West African countries including Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Cote d' Ivoire, Benin and Togo. Most of the collections of the herbarium have been digitized, and they are open and freely accessible via GBIF.org. The herbarium provides plant identification and naming services to scientists, researchers, and general public.
Legon Botanical Gardens
The Legon Botanical Gardens covers an area of approximately 25 hectares and supports teaching and research in the department. The garden contains both tropical and semi-tropical plants, including a large collection of palms. The garden is also involved in sale of plants and wreaths, landscaping, and horticulture services.
Tissue Culture Laboratory
The Tissue Culture Laboratory is a cutting-edge research facility that supports teaching and research for both undergraduate and graduate training in biotechnology. The facility has a preparation room, working area with four Laminar Flow hoods, two growth rooms equipped with optimal conditions necessary for plant growth and development. The facility undertakes large scale micropropagation to supply farmers with elite in vitro plants such as cassava, pineapple, and plantain seedlings. There are also greenhouses fully equipped for research in plant growth and development studies as well as weaning and hardening plantlets from in vitro cultures.
Mycology Laboratory
The Mycology laboratory is equipped with basic facilities, such as, autoclaves, incubators, and safety cabinets for mycological research. The laboratory is involved in isolation and identification of moulds from both food and agricultural products, and determination of antibacterial and antifungal properties of plant metabolites. The mycology laboratory has the capacity to diagnose and identify fungal plant pathogens of importance to agricultural and horticultural crops. The lab is also involved in the cultivation of edible and medicinal mushrooms.
General Research Laboratory
This laboratory supports general teaching and research for both undergraduate and graduate students in the department. The facility has equipment, such as, microscopes, microtomes, incubators, ovens, - 80 freezers, and spectrophotometers.
Library
The departmental library supplements the services of the main University of Ghana Library (https://balme.ug.edu.gh). Although many of the books in the library are old, the books are still useful reference materials for teaching, learning and research. Effort are being made to acquire more recent books and journals for the library. The library also contains the thesis and dissertations of students of the department.
