Utah Valley University Herbarium (UVSC)
Modified
5 November 2010
Description
The Utah Valley University Herbarium (UVSC) was established in 1987 as a research and teaching facility. The initial herbarium collection consisted of botanical specimens collected by Dr. James G. Harris, Professor of Biology, whose research focuses on a wide range of habitats including the deserts of the San Rafael Swell, high elevation mountain peaks (i.e. Mt. Timpanogos, Mt. Nebo, and the Deep Creek Range), as well as arctic regions of North America and Greenland. Currently the herbarium houses over 14,000 accessioned herbarium sheets, with an average of 1,500 specimens being added to the collection each year.
From 1999 until 2007, Donna Barnes, the former curator, added an extensive and
valuable collection of specimens to the herbarium from nearly all ecoregions in
Utah. During her tenure as curator, she added over 4700 specimens representing
2160 different taxa distributed across all plant families in Utah - over 57% of
the nearly 4000 taxa, introduced and native, found in Utah. Her indelible
contribution will remain unmatched for many years.
The current curator, Dr. Jason A. Alexander, is a
specialist in desert floras, specifically the Mojave Desert and the Great
Basin, and the genus Astragalus (milkvetch's) in the family Fabaceae.
Vouchers from several research projects have been added to the herbarium including: a complete collection of specimens obtained from a vegetative study of the Box-Death Hollow wilderness area (Garfield county, Utah), conducted by Janet Cooper, and collections associated with endangered plant studies in southern Utah conducted by Dr. Renée Van Buren.
Our herbarium collections include:
- Lichens, bryophytes, ferns, fern allies, gymnosperms, moncots, and dicots.
- Cone and fruit samples (used in teaching labs).
- A private collection of over 1300 slides including woody plants, herbaceous flowering plants and community types. These slides are used in teaching and in presentations. However, they may be made available to interested persons on a limited basis.
- A fossil plant collection, donated to the herbarium by Dr. William D. Tidwell, Brigham Young University Botany Department, December 1999, is in the process of being labeled and accessioned.
- A collection of reference books and maps for use by staff, faculty, students and visitors.