Hazara University is located on the crossroads of the ancient civilization of Gandhara and Ashoka and is on one of the Silk Routes connecting the Indian sub-continent with China and Central Asia. The University was founded in 2001 and has had a strong floristic program since that time. Today, its herbarium includes about 18,000 species and includes all plant groups other than algae. Its primary geographic focus is Northern Pakistan, a mountainous area that includes three major mountain ranges, the Hindu Kush, Karakorum, and Western Himalaya. It started sharing its specimen data via OpenHerbarium and GBIF in 2021.