The Wisconsin State Herbarium (formerly the University of Wisconsin-Madison Herbarium), founded in 1849, is a museum collection of dried, labeled plants of state, national and international importance, which is used extensively for taxonomic and ecological research, as well as for teaching and public service. It contains the world's largest collection of Wisconsin plants, about one-third of its over 1,000,000 specimens having been collected within the state. Most of the world's floras are well represented, and the holdings from certain areas, such as the Upper Midwest, eastern North America and western Mexico, are widely recognized as resources of global significance.
A herbarium is a collection of plant specimens, carefully collected, pressed and dried, that is arranged according to an accepted system of classification and made available for reference or various other scientific purposes. Most herbaria mount each specimen, together with a label bearing pertinent habitat and geographic data, on a sheet of high-quality paper and then file it into steel storage cabinets that are both fire and insect proof. Well-kept specimens will remain useful hundreds of years. In a very real sense, herbaria function as giant card catalogues and nature libraries that permanently store samples of plant species that have been gathered continually for centuries by taxonomists in their quest to identify, name and classify all the plants on the face of the earth. Thus, herbaria are priceless storehouses of information, indispensable to an understanding of the earth's biodiversity.
The Herbarium fulfills all of these functions. Bearing in mind its continuous use as a reference collection for making and verifying identifications, we have enlisted hundreds of taxonomic specialists the world over to obtain authoritative determinations for our specimens. The Herbarium also functions as a depository for specimens that document research projects carried out by the staff and students of the UW-Madison and other state agencies, such as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The specimens of the UW Herbarium are used extensively in the training of advanced undergraduates and graduate students in systematics, ecology, and related fields. The importance of the UW-Madison Herbarium to the State of Wisconsin was recognized in 1995 when it was designated at the official "Wisconsin State Herbarium" by the Wisconsin Legislature (1995SB160) and Govennor.
Certain plant groups and geographic regions have been the long-term focus of UW-Madison research. Thus, Solanum (potato, tomato, nightshade), Zea (corn), Capparacae (Caper Family), violets, magnolias, aquatic plants, parasitic fungi and arctic lichens are especially well-represented and form the basis of many published papers, monographs, books and regional floras. Active far beyond what might be expected from its size and budget, the Herbarium serves as the basis for several major, long-term floristic and distributional projects, such as the world famous flora of the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve. The recent (2003) donation of the 40,000-50,000 specimen wood collection from the U.S.D.A. forest Product Library is a world reknowned collection, and has increased the international significance of the herbarium's holdings.
More important for Wisconsin is the role we have played, and are continuing to play, in furthering the knowledge of Wisconsin's flora. For example, recent technical publications co-authored by the UW Herbarium staff include Spring Woodland Wildflowers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, Lichens of Wisconsin, Atlas of the Wisconsin prairie and savanna flora and Checklist of the vascular plants of Wisconsin.
Besides housing the Vascular Plant, Lichen, Parasitic Fungi, and Bryophyte herbaria and Herbarium Library, all of which are heavily used, the UW systematics section space contains offices, work and drier rooms and cytotaxonomic and biosystematic laboratories. The Herbarium Library is a specialized collection of books, journals, and especially reprints, over 120,000 items in all. Microfiche sets of important plant collections, significant archival material related to Wisconsin botany, and an eclectic collection of nearly 10,000 maps, atlases, gazetteers and related materials aid the taxonomic researcher. University botanists have access to the departmental greenhouses and garden, the UW Arboretum and the UW Biotron, an outstanding controlled environment facility.
The role that the Herbarium has played since 1849 reflects the increasing needs, responsibilities and problems facing natural history museums in general, and herbaria in particular. Nonetheless, Herbarium staff and students have continually enlarged and improved the collection, thus contributing to science and the welfare of the state of Wisconsin, and so informed the world at large of the crucial and indispensable role that taxonomy and herbaria must play in trying to find the elusive solutions to today's environmental and economic problems.
University of Wisconsin - Madison | Department of Botany | Wisconsin State Herbarium
Last updated June 29, 2004