Herbaria: what are they?

Carefully organized collections of preserved, documented plant specimens

PLUS

Associated resources

PLUS

People to help answer your questions

The Intermountain Herbarium

Is a major regional herbarium with

> 234,000 specimens, of which more than 63,000 have been databased

A library of more than 5,000 catalogued items

A slide collection of more than 2000 slides

Helpful staff members

Herbarium Specimens

Most of the Intermountain Herbarium’s specimens are vascular plants, but the fungal and bryophyte collections are becoming more active.

Specimens have two parts …

The plant material and

and the label

The label is critical. The identity of the specimen can be checked; the label cannot be.

Our specimens come from …

These are just georeferenced specimens. We have many others.

Some useful cabinets to know…

Range Class

The library ….

The herbarium’s reference library has more than 5000 items.

They are listed in the main library catalog.

Some references are for professionals

Others for non-professionals

and some are for children ….

Books for children – useful for those in education

The herbarium’s other resources include a slide collection…

Demonstration specimens…

Demonstration mounts

Resources for preparing specimens

The Intermountain Herbarium will loan plant presses and allow you to use its plant dryer and label making program.

Some tools the herbarium does not provide …

Field notebook

Clippers and digger

Tags

Pencil(s)

Bags

GPS, altimeter

Field press

Identifying plants …

The herbarium provides space, microscopes, and reference works for use in identifying plants (Floras are on shelves adjacent to this space).

Do not know how to identify plants?

Take a class Ask the herbarium staff to give you

some pointers – and then just do it (you do need to be prepared to learn about plants)

Pay us ($50 per hour for good specimens, $75 per hour for poor specimens).

Who can use the herbarium? Anyone – students, staff, faculty of

USU and members of the public The herbarium is open 8 am – 5

pm, Monday through Friday Please call if you would like a tour

(435-797-0061 or 435-797-1584) It is a great resource – use it!