The University and Jepson Herbaria are two

herbaria A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

that share a joint facility at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

holding over 2,200,000 botanical specimens, the largest such collection on the US West Coast. These

botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

natural history

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

s are on the ground floor of the Valley Life Sciences Building on the main campus of the university in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

. There are ancillary collections such as the Marine Algal Collection, Fruit & Cone Collection, Horticultural Herbarium and Spirit Collection. The herbaria hold many

type specimens In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes t ...

, especially of Western North American and Pacific Rim plants.

Holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

s are maintained separately for both herbaria. The Charterhouse School Herbarium is housed separately within the University Herbarium. The Herbaria have an open house every year on Cal Day with a range of activities for children and adults, and the Jepson Herbarium runs a series of workshops and public programs focusing on botanical education and the flora of California throughout the year.

University Herbarium

Founded in 1890 with the new Department of Botany, the focus of the University Herbarium is worldwide and includes

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They ...

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited in s ...

s, algae, and

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

. Originally located in

South Hall (UC Berkeley) South Hall is the oldest building on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, built in 1873 in the Napoleon III style. It is the only remaining building of the original campus. South Hall was originally the counterpart of North Hall, ...

the University herbarium grew rapidly and now contains over 2.2 million specimens. Although not officially named 'Director',

William Albert Setchell William Albert Setchell (April 15, 1864 – April 5, 1943) was an American botanist and marine phycologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he headed the Botany Department. Among his publications are the ''Phycotheca ...

, whose primary interest was marine algae, officially established the University Herbarium and was chair of the Botany Department. He was succeeded in 1933 by Herbert L. Mason in 1933,

Lincoln Constance Lincoln Constance (February 16, 1909 – June 11, 2001) was an American botanist and administrator at the University of California, Berkeley. Constance worked with Marion S. Cave for over twenty years to identify how many chromosomes different mem ...

in 1963 and

Robert Ornduff Robert Ornduff (1932–2000) was an American botanist. He was Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria, Director of the University of California Botanical Garden, Executive Director of the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, and ...

in 1975. In 1982, Thomas Duncan as Director lead ambitious digitization efforts. These efforts were furthered with the appointment of Brent Mishler (a bryologist and Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology) as Director in 1993. Under Mishler's leadership the Consortium of California Herbaria database was established in 2003 to serve as a gateway to information from California vascular plant specimens that are housed in herbaria throughout the state. The Herbaria currently have over 1,000,000 digitized specimens with a combined total for the consortium of over 2 million specimens.

Directors

(informally; –1933) * Herbert L. Mason 1933-1966 *

(1966-1975) *

(1975-1982) * Thomas Duncan (1982-1993) * Brent Mishler (1993-present)

Jepson Herbarium

The focus of the Jepson Herbarium is California vascular plants, including the native flora of California. It was established to "understand and conserve the California flora." In addition to the herbarium specimens research staff work on botanical projects that include updating ''

The Jepson Manual ''The Jepson Manual'' is a flora of the vascular plants that are either native to or naturalized in California. Botanists often refer to the book simply as ''Jepson''. It is produced by the University and Jepson Herbaria, of the University of Cali ...

'', as well as related online resources for identifying California flora. A series of workshops on botanical and ecological subjects are designed and run to accommodate botanical enthusiasts from beginners to professionals. It was founded by

Willis Linn Jepson Willis Linn Jepson (August 19, 1867 – November 7, 1946) was an early California botanist, conservationist, and writer. Career Born at Little Oak Ranch near Vacaville, California, Jepson became interested in botany as a boy and explor ...

in 1950, and named after him. The Jepson Herbarium supports the Jepson eFlora, a taxonomic database that builds on and expands the second edition of ''The Jepson Manual''. It describes itself as "the foremost authority on the native and naturalized vascular plants of California".

References

External links

Official website: University and Jepson Herbaria Homepage

Official website: Jepson Herbarium

Consortium of California Herbaria
{{Authority control University of California, Berkeley Herbaria in the United States Flora of California Natural history of California

University Herbarium

Directors

Jepson Herbarium

See also

References

External links