Valdosta State University

Description

The Valdosta State University Herbarium (VSC) provides a repository for the preservation of voucher specimens that document the flora of the Coastal Plain region of Georgia and specimens from a broader geographical area that might be useful in the study of the flora of this region and that enable specialized research on particular groups of plants carried out by faculty and students in residence at Valdosta State University and by taxonomic specialists at other institutions. VSC also provides specimens for use in teaching, and its staff responds to requests from the general public, natural resource managers, agricultural scientists, and others by providing information about plants and service determinations of unknown plants and, where appropriate, preserving vouchers relating to such. In 2009 the Valdosta State University Herbarium established a SQL database, with assistance from the VSU Division of Information Technology, and in 2011 obtained support from the National Science Foundation (DBI 1054366, R. Carter PI) that enabled the purchase of imaging and other digitization equipment and the employment of student assistants to begin capturing images and building a database. More than 70,000 specimens have been digitized. In 2012, the Valdosta State University Virtual Herbarium (VSU-VH), a collaborative project between the Herbarium and the VSU Odum Library, was made possible with funding from the Valdosta State University Faculty Research Fund (M. Holt PI, R. Carter Co-PI). The VSU-VH serves on-line vascular plant specimen images and data, and images and data from more than 4,000 non-vascular plant specimens are served through the Consortium of North American Bryophyte Herbaria (CNABH) portal.

Contacts

ADMINISTRATIVE_POINT_OF_CONTACT
J. Richard Carter
email: rcarter@valdosta.edu

TECHNICAL_POINT_OF_CONTACT
Michael O. Holt
email: moholt@valdosta.edu

Valdosta State University
Herbarium [VSC] Bailey Science Center, Room 1042, 1500 N Patterson Street
Valdosta
GA 31698-0015
US