A short description of the collections of The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium (NY) (original) (raw)
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In celebration of The New York Botanical Garden’s 125th anniversary, we present an updated description of the specimen holdings and activities of The William and Lynda Steere Herbarium of The New York Botanical Garden (NY) from 1995 to 2015. During this time, the collection grew to approximately 7.8 million specimens, a new International Plant Sciences Center was built to house the Herbarium and LuEsther T. Mertz Library, many plant families and other taxonomic groups grew in scope and taxonomic comprehensiveness, Southeast Asia developed as a new focus of collecting activities, and the Herbarium emerged as a leader in specimen digitization.
Brittonia, 1991
5126). Notable collections represented in the Truman G. Yuncker Herbarium (DPU), now deposited at the New York Botanical Garden (NY). Brittonia 43: 269-276. 1991.-The integration of the vascular plants from the Yuncker Herbarium (DPU) into the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium (NY) has been completed, and the curatorial work is summarized. The most notable vascular plant collections, with emphasis on the local collections from Indiana, are reported on and a list of the most prominent collectors is presented. An index to all collectors of vascular plants represented in the Yuncker Herbarium has been deposited in the New York Botanical Garden Library.
University of Richmond Herbarium
1984
maintains an herbarium of approximately 15,000 specimens. Although recently assigned the acronym URV, this collection has not yet been included in Index Herbariorum and, consequently, few botanists outside of Virginia are aware of its existence. This note provides a brief account of the history of URV, a summary of its contents, and a short bibliography of works pertaining to the collection. The first herbarium collection at the University of Richmond was that of Paul R. Merriman, who assembled a set of vouchers for his Flora of Richmond and Vicinity. Unfortunately, his collections were lost in a fire which destroyed the Science Building on 20 October 1925. Despondent, Merriman died shortly thereafter. His manuscript and a set of illustrations prepared by Mary S. Lynn survived the blaze, and from these the Flora Committee of the Virginia Academy of Science published Merriman's florula posthumously in 1930. This work excluded grasses, sedges, and trees; nevertheless, it has been widely used in the Richmond area for the identification of wildflowers. In essence, the extant herbarium collection at the University of Richmond was founded by Robert F. Smart, who joined the staff of the Department of Biology in 1929. Smart was responsible for the early growth of the herbarium by his own collections (primarily myxomycetes and fungi), the collections of his students, and by his contacts with botanists at Harvard University where he did his graduate work. Through this Harvard connection, David H. Linder and Merritt L. Fernald deposited many specimens from their collecting trips in Virginia in the University ofRichmond Herbarium. Ultimately, Fernald conducted some 44 field trips in Virginia on which he was accompanied variously by Bayard Long, Ludlow Griscom, Robert Smart, John M. Fogg, Everett Luttrell, and others. On several of these trips, Fernald used Maryland Hall, which then housed the Department of Biology, as base camp for his collecting forays. Fernald's accounts of these excursions are published in Rhodora, the first installment appearing in volume 3 7. Virginia plants collected by Fernald form the nucleus of the vascular plant specimens in the University of Richmond Herbarium. Curatorship of the herbarium succeeded to John C. Strickland when Smart became engaged in administrative duties during the I 940's. Strickland concentrated primarily on Myxophyceae (bluegreen algae) during his tenure as curator. In 1977 the herbarium was moved to its present location in the Gottwald Science Center and, since 1980, the author has curated the collection. Current curatorial improvements are bringing the collection to an acceptable condition of usefulness. These activities have also permitted making accurate counts of specimens in the collection. Estimates of holdings for major groups of plants in the University of Richmond Herbarium, with notes on the most important collectors, are as follows:
2013
Loss of small herbaria is an unfortunate global trend, and initiation of new collections at small academic institutions is an increasingly rare occurrence. In 2006, a new herbarium was established at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh. The PLAT herbarium has since grown to more than 7,000 specimens, many of them representative of the flora of northeastern New York (especially Clinton County). Previous to 2006, this region was without a recognized herbarium, the nearest in-state collections being more than 150 miles away. Although botanists have previously worked in the region, relatively few plant species were recorded for Clinton County by the New York Flora Atlas – a resource providing species distribution records based on specimens accessioned in herbarium collections. Given the dearth of available distribution data for Clinton County (including the eastern Adirondack Mountains and the western Lake Champlain valley), this project sought to provide records of previously unreported species by comparing NY Flora Atlas maps with current holdings. 203 species will now be added to the NY Flora Atlas for Clinton County, roughly half of those considered exotic. This exercise has amplified the importance of supporting and maintaining small regional herbaria as repositories of valuable biodiversity information. Likewise, this project also highlights the enduring value of training in floristics and taxonomy.
HERBARIUM: CONCEPT AND DEFINITION
The term herbarium, used in the strictest sense today, is simply a collection of dried specimens. Lawrence (1951) and others include in their definitions the arrangement of specimens in the sequence of an accepted classification and are available for reference or other scientific study. "Herbarium" used in its original sense, however, referred not to a collection of plants, but to a book about medicinal plants. Tournefort in about 1700 used the term as an equivalent to hortus siccus (Stearn, 1957), and this use was taken up by Linnaeus who also adopted it as a substitute for hortus siccus, hortus mortus, and others. It was largely through his influence that it superseded the former terms. The procedure of pressing and drying specimens for storage has been an amazingly successful one in terms of preservation of detail and specimen longevity, and the plants so preserved provide a concrete basis for past, present and future studies. In its more than four-hundred-year history the .herbarium has become an institution. Today one associates the term herbarium not only with preserved plant specimens but also with certain botanical activities. The herbarium is the basic reference source of the taxonomist and has become a center for research as well as teaching and public information. An herbarium, a special kind of museum, can also be regarded as a data bank with vast quantities of raw data. Each specimen has information content and therefore value which will, of course, vary depending on completeness of specimen and data and the source of the material. Each specimen has information about the vegetation of an area, a population, and the taxon to which it belongs (Rollins, 1965). The collection, therefore, represents a source of primary information about man's explorations and observations of the earth's vegetation, and document the results of much the past inquiry into the nature and relationships of plants. Herbarium specimens are now used for studies in the disci[plines which were probably never even dreamed of at the time early collections were made and herbaria organized. These studies include such fields as cytogeography, biochemical systematics, palynology, and genecology. II. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT The beginning of the herbarium as a collection of dried specimens affixed to paper for a lasting record is attributed to Luca Ghini (1490?-1556). According to Arber (1938) Ghini seems to have been the sole initiator of the art of herbarium-making and this art was disseminated over Europe by his students. Gherards Cibo, a pupil of Ghini, began collecting and preserving specimens as early as 1532 and his herbarium is extant today. John Falconer, an Englishman, is mentioned as possessing an herbarium in the writings of Lusitanus in 1553 and William Turner in 1569, and it is believed that he also learned of herbarium making either directly or indirectly from Ghini (Arber, 1938). Although the herbarium technique was a well-known botanical practice at the time of Linnaeus, he departed from the convention of the day (mounting specimens and binding them into volumes) by mounting his specimens on single sheets and
The Compositae collection of LP Herbarium: past and present
Capitulum, 2022
The Herbarium LP (Museum of La Plata, National University of La Plata) holds nearly 300,000 specimens representing a rich histor y of challenging collecting journeys to unchar ted lands and a deep love for plants. Specifically, for Compositae, the LP herbarium holds about 50000 non-type specimens and 2415 type specimens. From these types, the tribes Senecioneae, Astereae, Nassauvieae, and Mutisieae are, in decreasing order, the best represented. The legacy of Angel Lulio Cabrera is especially notewor thy by representing nearly 44% of the total type specimens. This essential collection makes the LP herbarium a reference institution for South American Compositae knowledge.
The Herbarium of Pisa Botanic Garden : Scientific Tradition Shapes its Future
Nelumbo - The Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India, 1994
Almost 450 ye= ago, the foundation of the first Botanic Garden% to'which herbaria were readily associated, marked the birth of botany as autonomous discipline. Atter alterne phases of concern a d disregard as to their role, today it is generally acknowledged that these institutions resources and capabilities must be exploited to suc~es~filly confi.ont with the global challenge posed by environment degradation. In our country, tllis awareness is mirrored by the attentive interest paid to a recent international symposium organized by the Botanic Garden of Pisa, in celebration of its 400 years od existence and activity, during which the role of herbaria was also discussed, and by the expectations raised by the congresses scheduled at the Herbarium of Florence (September, 1992) and at the Botanic Garden of Padua (1995). The Herbarium of Pisa has a long standing tradition of study and research. At present, it is divided in two sections : the historical md the current collections. The historical colledions, assembled hy renowned botanists, such as Giuseppe Raddi, Gaetano Savi and Teodoro Caruel, mainly in the last century, are not added to, in view oftheir value as documentation of their compiler's activity; furthemore, they contain several type specimens. The current collection, on the other hand, is routinely added to with exsiccata of various origin, ranging from S. Europe to N. Africa and Middle East. The overall 500000 specimens maintained in the Herbarium provide a noteworthy body of scientific data recorded over a'considerable length of time. Current research and management activity are briefly discussed.