HU’s herbarium added to national registry
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Above, Dr. Collin Hobbs examines some of the specimens kept in HU's herbarium. At top, is a sampling of some of those specimens. |
HUNTINGTON, Ind. Huntington University features one of the oldest
and largest herbariums of any Christian college in the Midwest.
Plant samples date back to the early 1900s, and the collection includes more than 11,000 specimens.
Today, because of the work of Dr. Collin Hobbs, assistant professor of biology,
the university's herbarium is now listed on a national registry. The
registry will allow researchers from around the world to access the
collection at Huntington.
"The founder Fred Loew's goal was to
get every single species from Huntington County," Hobbs said of the
herbarium that was founded in 1903. "If he didn't get it, he was very
close."
While the herbarium has sat mostly unused for many
years, Hobbs is revitalizing the collection and using his students to
grow its specimens. Students in his botany class are pressing plants
they have collected on campus as well as at the university's Thornhill
Nature Preserve. After the plants are dried, they are mounted on paper,
labeled and entered into the collection.
The registry listing can be found at http://sweetgum.nybg.org/ih/herbarium.php?irn=177735. For more information about the herbarium, contact Hobbs at 260-359-4201.