University of Montana Herbarium
Encyclopedia
The University of Montana Herbarium is a herbarium
located at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana
. It is open by appointment only.
The herbarium contains over 129,000 plant specimens, and is the world's largest and finest collection of Northern Rocky Mountains
flora. Its primary mission is to collect and preserve specimens from the Western Cordillera
and Great Plains
but collections span a wider taxonomic and geographic range.
About 60% of the 120,000 vascular plant specimens are from Montana
itself, a state with diverse plant communities, including Great Plains prairies, Great Basin
sagebrush
steppes, boreal forests, Northern Rockies alpine communities, and the eastern limit of the moist conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest
. The non-Montana collections include many duplicate specimens from Wyoming
, Idaho
, Utah
and Nevada
.
The herbarium has a rich history, and its vascular plant collection represents over 100 years of botanical research in Montana, with hundreds of specimens from important early collectors, including C. Bessey, F. D. Kelsey, Marcus Jones and W. N. Suksdorf. That said, however, its greatest strength lies in more recent collections. Over 20,000 (28%) of the Montana vascular plant specimens were collected in the past 30 years by Prof. Klaus Lackschewitz or Peter Lesica. These newer specimens have location data accurate to the nearest square mile, making them a particularly useful resource for ecological and biogeographical studies.
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
located at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
. It is open by appointment only.
The herbarium contains over 129,000 plant specimens, and is the world's largest and finest collection of Northern Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
flora. Its primary mission is to collect and preserve specimens from the Western Cordillera
American cordillera
The American Cordillera is a cordillera that consists of an essentially continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica. From north to south, this sequence of overlapping and parallel ranges begins with the...
and Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
but collections span a wider taxonomic and geographic range.
About 60% of the 120,000 vascular plant specimens are from Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
itself, a state with diverse plant communities, including Great Plains prairies, Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
sagebrush
Sagebrush
Sagebrush is a common name of a number of shrubby plant species in the genus Artemisia native to western North America;Or, the sagebrush steppe ecoregion, having one or more kinds of sagebrush, bunchgrasses and others;...
steppes, boreal forests, Northern Rockies alpine communities, and the eastern limit of the moist conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
. The non-Montana collections include many duplicate specimens from Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
.
The herbarium has a rich history, and its vascular plant collection represents over 100 years of botanical research in Montana, with hundreds of specimens from important early collectors, including C. Bessey, F. D. Kelsey, Marcus Jones and W. N. Suksdorf. That said, however, its greatest strength lies in more recent collections. Over 20,000 (28%) of the Montana vascular plant specimens were collected in the past 30 years by Prof. Klaus Lackschewitz or Peter Lesica. These newer specimens have location data accurate to the nearest square mile, making them a particularly useful resource for ecological and biogeographical studies.