Herbaria of West Virginia

A herbarium is a systematically arranged collection of dried plants. Herbaria were first established in Europe in the 1600’s when botanical gardens could no longer keep living collections of all the known plants in the world. One of the oldest herbaria is located in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, with over 6 million specimens, most of which are digitized. The largest herbarium in the US is located at the New York Botanic Gardens (NYBG), with almost 8 million specimens. It was established in 1891.

The NYBG maintains an index to herbaria – listing 3100 herbaria with over 390 million specimens worldwide. There are currently several herbaria in West Virginia. For a more detailed description, see Spring 2002 Native Notes.

West Virginia University, Morgantown - Donna Ford Werntz, Curator, dford2@wvu.edu

Marshall University, Huntington - Pamela Puppo, Curator, puppo@marshall.edu

WV Wesleyan College, Buckhannon - Katharine Gregg, Curator, gregg@wvwc.edu

Fairmont State University, Fairmont - Rachel Cook, Curator, rcook11@fairmontstate.edu

Glenville State College, Glenville - Jeremy Keene, Curator, jeremy.keene@glenville.edu

University of Charleston, Charleston - Mark Watson, Curator, markwatson@uswv.edu

David and Elkins College, Elkins - Michelle Mabry, Curator, mabrym@dewv.edu

DNR Headquarters, Elkins - James Vanderhorst, Curator, james.p.vanderhorst@wv.gov

West Virginia University, Beckley - Jay Raymond, Curator, jay.raymond@mail.wvu.edu

Burgundy Nature Center, Capon Bridge - Susan Hepler, Acting Curator, susanhepler2602@gmail.com

The largest - the WVU Herbarium, located in the WVU Life Sciences Building - was established in 1889 and contains over 200,000 specimens.