LSU
Herbarium Online
Founded in 1869, the Louisiana State University Herbarium is the
oldest collection of preserved plant specimens in the Gulf South and includes
many valuable specimens collected in the nineteenth century, as well as numerous
recent ones. It is the second largest collection of Louisiana
plants. Originally composed entirely of specimens of vascular or "higher"
plants (wildflowers, trees, grasses, ferns and the like), it now also includes
very fine collections of lichens and fungi. In all, the LSU Herbarium
contains about 165,000 specimens, including over 40,000 lichens (the largest
lichen collection in the region) and about 25,000 fungi (the second-largest
collection of its kind in the region). The fungal collection is especially rich
in Neotropical wood-decaying fungi, and Gulf Coast lichens are especially well
represented in the collection. The LSU Herbarium represents an essential
resource for all research, teaching, and public service involving the
wildflowers of Louisiana, the ecology of Louisiana marshes, medicinal plants of
the Gulf South, environmental impact assessment in Louisiana, conservation of
tropical rain forests, and much more. The LSU Herbarium and the plant taxonomy
program operate within the context of a University-wide Systematic and
Evolutionary Biology Program which is nationally recognized and extremely strong
in both field-oriented tropical studies and advanced molecular approaches.
The Herbarium is in a dynamic stage of activity and growth. The completion
of was marked by the publication of the Flora of Louisiana in 1991. The
flora was initiated in 1976 when Louisiana State University commissioned a
series of watercolor drawings by the internationally known botanical artist
Margaret Stones of England to commemorate the bicentennial year; Lowell
Urbatsch, Director of the LSU Herbarium, provided the botanical text for this
work that was financially supported by many local Louisianians and carried out
in conjunction with LSU Herbarium personnel.
In 1991 the herbarium received a large grant from the State of Louisiana to computerize the collections, and this work is an ongoing project. Tom Wendt, specialist in Mexican rain forest trees, joined the herbarium in the same year as Associate Director, the first full-time Ph.D. level herbarium staff member. In 1992, the Clair Brown Memorial Endowment was established, being named after the long-time Director of the Herbarium and author of Wildflowers of Louisiana and Adjoining States, Trees of Louisiana, and many other botanical works. This fund is growing through private contributions and provides income entirely for herbarium use. The Herbarium also boasts a rapidly growing herbarium library which includes the very fine collections donated by Clair Brown, Bernard Lowy, Shirley Tucker, and Florence Givens. The herbarium library is complemented by important botanical works in the LSU Middleton Library, including many rare works in the outstanding Special Collections housed in the adjacent Hill Memorial Library.
Cramped quarters have become a major problem in this rapidly growing herbarium.
However, the Louisiana State University is building a Life Sciences Annex and
a new 6,000 ft2 herbarium complex designed to hold more than 500,000 specimens
with a future maximum capacity of 800,000 will be completed by 2001. The
university is clearly looking forward to and supporting very strong growth of
the herbarium. The new herbarium brings renewed fervor, and the goals
are to become the premier collection of Louisiana and Gulf Coast plants and
to become a resource of international importance for the plants and fungi of
the northern part of the New World Tropics. Present herbarium fieldwork
includes general collecting in Louisiana and the Gulf South, natural areas survey
work in Louisiana in conjunction with the Nature Conservancy of Louisiana, and
collection of fungi associated with arthropods. Mark Mayfield continues
the tradition of Ph.D. level associate directors as the incumbent in this position.
LSU
Herbarium Online
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LSU Herbarium's Louisiana Collections
Wood-rotting
fungi of the gulf coast states
