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U.S. National Arboretum Herbarium
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By Frederick G. Meyer |
| Location |
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Agricultural Research Service,
U.S. National
Arboretum, 3501 New York Avenue, NE, Washington, DC
20002-1958 |
| Loans |
To recognized research institutions and
scientists |
| Associated
libraries
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8,000 volumes; 9,000
reprints |
Number of
accessions |
600,000 |
| Types
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2,400 (botanical and
horticultural) |
| Curators
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Mark A. Hershkovitz, Phone: (202)
245-4550, fax: (202) 245-4579, e-mail, curator and
specialist in phytogeography and systematics of Caryophyllales
Kevin Conrad, Phone: (202) 245-4513, fax: (202)
245-4575 , e-mail,
horticulturist and collections manager
Frederick G. Meyer (retired), specialist in
herbals, flora of North America, woody cultivated plants in southeastern United
States
Thomas S. Elias (director of Arboretum), specialist
in trees of North America
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| Home
page
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| Content |
The
U.S.
National Arboretum Herbarium is a facility for research on the systematics,
nomenclature, and history of cultivated plants. Worldwide in scope, it serves
as a national repository for voucher material of wild and cultivated
progenitors of plants related to agriculture, including plants used for food,
forage, industrial, medicinal, and drug purposes; ornamentals; weeds; and
forest trees. The herbarium also contains named cultivars, hybrids, and other
elite materials covering a wide diversity of cultivated plants
worldwide--azaleas to zoysia, beets to magnolias, lilies to economic legumes,
and cotton, wheat, alfalfa, carrots, holly, crepe myrtle, African violets, and
a host of others. |
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The herbarium contains about 600,000 specimens that are filed into
compactors (fig. 20). The reference material of cultivated plants numbers
between 60,000 and 70,000 specimens. The general herbarium contains an
extensive reference collection of the native flora of the United States and
Canada and also material from Japan, China, South America, Africa, Australia,
and other areas of the world. Documented material is filed in systematic order
by family (fig. 21). |
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Figure 20. Compactors that
house the herbarium at the
U.S. National Arboretum |
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Figure 21. Herbarium speci-
mens are filed in systematic
order by family |
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One of the aims of the herbarium has always been to document germplasm
materials sent to the United States by U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) plant explorers as a permanent legacy of
the history and development of American agriculture. As to content, the present
USDA herbarium dates from about 1900, based on collections of cultivated plants
obtained as seeds and plants from many parts of the world by USDA plant
explorers N.E. Hansen and M.A. Carleton from Russia, by the worldwide contacts
of W.T. Swingle, by J.N. Rose from Mexico, by David Fairchild from many parts
of the tropics, by F.N. Meyer from China, Turkestan, and the Near East, by P.H
Dorsett from China and Japan, by Wilson Popenoe from Latin America, and by many
others. More recent plant explorers whose collections are represented in the
herbarium are D.S. Correll (Latin America), W. Koelz (Iran, Afghanistan,
India), H.S. Gentry (Mexico, Middle East), J.L. Creech (Japan), T.R. Dudley
(China, Peru), and F.G. Meyer (Europe, Ethiopia, Japan, southeastern United
States). |
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A major acquisition was the 19th century herbarium of Isaac C. Martindale,
purchased in 1964 from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. The
Martindale herbarium contains about 60,000 specimens and is represented by over
700 collectors. The collection is rich in historic material of the 19th
century, including types, from many parts of the world, particularly North
America and Europe. U.S. collectors represented in the Martindale herbarium
include C.F. and R.M. Austin, M.E. Bebb, H.N. Bolander, William M. Canby, Alvan
Chapman, George Englemann, Asa Gray, E.L. Greene, Marcus E. Jones, F.
Lindheimer, E.J. Palmer, S.B. Parish, C.F. Parker, C.C. Parry, Zina Pitcher,
C.G. Pringle, J.H. Redfield, J. Reverchon, J.T. Rothrock, Ferdinand Rugel, and
others. The collections of Rugel are important as the earliest made by a
resident botanist of the southeastern United States. |
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Material from Europe is represented by a large number of collectors, many
well known, including G. Gaudin, who wrote a flora of Switzerland in the
1830's; John Stuart Mill, famous logician, economist, and sometimes botanist;
W.D.J. Koch, J.E. Planchon, A. de St. Hilaire, C.F. Hochstetter, and George
Bentham. A few European collections date from the late 18th century. Also
represented is a fine set of specimens collected by E.G. Post from the Middle
East and another by C.F. Cheeseman from New Zealand; both collections form the
basis of a flora of their respective regions. |
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The Carlton R. Ball willow collection, bequeathed in 1958, contains 25,000
herbarium specimens plus 700 reprints, books, notes, and bibliographic files on
the genus Salix. Ball, a USDA agronomist for many years, was the
leading authority on North American willows. The herbarium also contains
material donated by various workers to document taxonomic research projects,
including Acer, Manihot, Juniperus, Pinus, and grass hybrids. The
Macay nut collection, consisting of several hundred jars of nuts, was started
in the early 20th century and represents an important reference collection of
nut varieties grown in the United States. |
| Background |
The earliest herbarium in the USDA dates from 1868, when the
U.S. National Herbarium of the Smithsonian
Institution was transferred to the USDA. During the 1880's and 1890's, the
herbarium was staffed by George Vasey, William E. Stafford, and Frederick V.
Coville, who were the principal botanists at that time. On July 1, 1896, this
herbarium and all of its contents were returned officially to the custody of
the Smithsonian Institution under Frederick V. Coville, then chief botanist of
USDA and honorary curator of the National Herbarium until his death in 1937.
Between 1896 and 1934, the USDA was without an official herbarium.
Nevertheless, during these 38 years various individuals within the Department
were preparing herbarium specimens of nursery plants, as well as material of
plant introductions sent to the United States from foreign countries under the
Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, organized in 1898. (See list of
collectors mentioned under Content.) |
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The present herbarium of the U.S. National Arboretum was formally organized
in 1934 by B.Y. Morrison, then principal horticulturist, Division of Plant
Introduction and Exploration, USDA. This was the first official herbarium of
the USDA unrelated to the National Herbarium of 1868 and the Smithsonian
Institution. For many years Morrison was chief of the Foreign Seed and Plant
Introduction Office and first director of the National Arboretum. Under his
leadership, the herbarium grew rapidly in the 1930's and 1940's. From its
original quarters in the old agriculture building in downtown Washington, DC,
the herbarium was moved to the Department's research facility at Beltsville,
MD, in the late 1930's. |
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In 1951, the herbarium officially became part of the
U.S. National
Arboretum. In 1959, the herbarium was moved from Beltsville to a temporary
storage area at the National Arboretum. Permanent quarters were established in
the two-floor wing of the new Arboretum Administration Building in 1964. From
its founding in 1934, the principal curators of the herbarium have been W.
Andrew Archer to 1959, Gabriel Edwin from 1959 to 1963, Frederick G. Meyer from
1963 to 1991, and Theodore R. Dudley from 1991 to 1994. |
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During World War II, the herbarium had a staff of 17 botanists, many of
whom were in South America collecting wild rubber (Hevea) and quinine
(Cinchona) for the war effort. Botanists actively associated with the
herbarium at that time included S.F. Blake, W. Andrew Archer, F.R. Fosberg,
Joseph Ewan, Rogers McVaugh, F.J. Hermann, and C.H. Muller. |
Identification
Service |
Most of the 5,000 identifications of plants requested each
year are submitted by government agencies, experiment stations, educational
institutions, botanic gardens, embassies, garden clubs, farmers, and the
general public. Federal Government and other researchers submit identification
requests for ongoing research projects. Normally material is submitted as
dried, pressed specimens or as fresh material by mail or by hand delivery to
the herbarium technician or head curator. The curator makes the identification
and sends the results to the requesting person or agency. Identification may
take minutes, but often the material must be compared with other material in
the herbarium to ensure accuracy. Requests for identification should be
submitted to: Curator of the Herbarium, U.S. National Arboretum, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, 3501 New York Ave., NE, Washington, DC
20002-1958. |
| Research |
Research at the U.S. National Arboretum Herbarium centers on
the nomenclature and taxonomy of cultivated plants. Research topics normally
apply to specific plant groups, some of which are of economic importance to
humans. From 1940 to 1965, a major project was the multiauthored
Contributions Toward a Flora of Nevada, issued in 50 parts,
under the general direction of W. Andrew Archer. Other research projects have
covered Betula, Coffea, Fothergilla, Hamamelis, Ilex, Koelreuteria,
Magnolia, Malus, Rhododendron (subgenus Azalea), and
Viburnum. |
Selected
Achievements |
1941 |
Issued first volume of geographical guide to
floras of the world |
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1942 |
Published monograph on Central American oak trees of the genus
Quercus |
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1953 |
Published descriptive list of Glenn Dale azalea
cultivars, a new class of hardy azaleas |
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1961 |
Issued first descriptive list of bamboos cultivated in the United
States |
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1961 |
Issued second volume of geographical guide to floras of
the world |
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1962 |
Monographed the soybean genus Glycine |
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1964 |
Acquired Isaac C. Martindale herbarium |
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1965 |
Terminated series on contributions toward flora of Nevada |
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1965 |
Published first flora of Japan in English |
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1976 |
Monographed the genus Koelreuteria |
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1976 |
Rediscovered Betula uber, a species from
Virginia thought to be extinct |
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1983 |
Published comprehensive account on the flora of Staten Island, Tierra del
Fuego, Argentina |
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1986 |
Completed manuscript on the great herbal of Leonhart
Fuchs (1501-66) |
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1994 |
Published catalog of cultivated woody plants of the southeastern United
States |
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