The Tulane University
Herbarium (Index Herbariorum abbreviation NO) is one of the principal
herbaria of the Gulf South region. The University holds specimens of
algae, bryophytes, and vascular plants, all housed in Stanley Thomas
Hall on the main campus in New Orleans. The collections of algae are
maintained primarily for teaching purposes. The bryological collections
(ca. 2500 specimens) are mainly of Gulf Coast mosses and liverworts
representing valuable historical collections.
The vascular plant
herbarium includes ca. 115,000 specimens of worldwide representation,
but is strongest in the flora of the southeastern United States,
southern California, the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, and northern
Latin America, especially the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Important
special collections include roughly 150 type specimens, early plant
collections from the lower Mississippi River drainage, Arizona and
California ferns of J.G. Lemmon, and North American Gramineae and
Cyperaceae of Asa Gray. Recent accessions include collections made by
Tulane faculty and students, and exchange material received from some
thirty institutions worldwide. Herbarium loans support a wide variety of
monographic, floristic, ecological, and ethnobotanical studies.
Research in
systematic and taxonomic botany is further supported by the Minna F.
Koch Library of Botany, a collection of more than 1000 titles housed
adjacent to the herbarium and rich in historical botany and plant
illustration, as well as worldwide floras, monographs, dictionaries, and
essential reference works.
The
University's fungal collections (roughly 8,000 specimens) were donated
to The New York Botanical Garden in May of 1999.