In August, two groups from NPSOT Austin toured the herbarium collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. George Yatskievych, the collection’s curator, spoke to the groups about the history of the herbarium and the more than 1 million plant specimens in the collection. He showed a plant specimen of Galápagos Leatherleaf (Maytenus octogona) collected from the Galápagos Islands by Charles Darwin in 1835. About a quarter of the collection is plants from Texas, making it the largest collection of Texas plants in the world.
The plant specimens in the collection have been collected, pressed, dried, and preserved. Each plant has a label, and 550,000 plant specimens have had their label transcribed into databases. About half of those have also been imaged digitally. Many of these records are available for anyone to view in their online portal. A surprising aspect of the collection is that it is entirely housed in the UT Tower. The collection is spread across nine floors! Its location on campus makes it convenient for students to do research and volunteer.
The herbarium encourages the use of their collections by both scientists and plant enthusiasts. Anyone can submit a physical plant specimen. The collection grows by about 7,000-8000 each year. It is encouraged to read their guidelines on processing specimens. Additionally, they welcome volunteers who work on campus with the collection and remotely with their data.
