The Department of Central Asia (about 40 thousand herbarium sheets) was established by P.N. Krylov in the early days of the Herbarium as «herbarium of Semipalatinsk and Semirechye», later – «herbarium of Turkestan», the collection was eventually formally established by L.P. Sergiyevskaya in the late 30s. The collection was based on materials gathered by G.N. Potanin (1863-1864) from Tarbagatai Prizaysanskiy krai that were processed by P.N. Krylov. Rich and valuable materials came from expeditions of V.V. Sapozhnikov and B.K. Shishkin to Semirechye and Zaisan uyezd, valuable collections were received from N.V. Pavlov from Kazakhstan. The doublets from famous explorers of Central Asia A.G. Schrenk, A. Regel, G.S. Karelin and I.P. Kirilov were also added to this collection. Due to typification, a part of the materials from collections of G.S. Karelin and I.P. Kirilov were identified as isolectotypes and moved to the type specimens. In Soviet times, the collection used to be enriched through the exchange with the Herbarium of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan with materials gathered by students who participated in expeditions to Central Asia.
