HU’s herbarium added to national registry

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.