Herbarium
The UBC Herbarium houses the largest collection of plants in western Canada, with more than 600,000 specimens from around the world.
Nearly half of those specimens are bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts), making the UBC bryophyte collection the largest in Canada, and one of the best in the world.
The Herbarium holds the world’s largest collection of BC plants, as well as important collections of Pacific algae, fungi, Hawaiian plants, tropical prayer plants, and cyanolichens. This collection is critical to the identification, monitoring, and conservation of plant biodiversity in British Columbia, and is an important resource for education and scientific research. The numbers of accessioned specimens in each collection are as follows:
- 223,000 vascular plants (flowering plants, conifers, ferns and allies)
- 242,000 bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts)
- 85,000 algae (mostly seaweed)
- 40,000 lichens
- 16,000 fungi
What is a Herbarium
A herbarium is a museum of dried plant specimens. Herbaria provide a permanent record of our changing flora over time, documenting all plant species discovered so far, their variation, and their past and present distributions. These specimens also hold a treasure trove of anatomical, chemical, ethnobotanical, and molecular information, and document the history of plant exploration.
The Collections
Algae
The UBC Phycological Collection has in excess of 67,000 specimens with the majority of these from the northeast Pacific. It is the most comprehensive of any Herbarium.
This collection focuses on the diverse seaweed flora of the northeast Pacific from Oregon to Alaska, including many type specimens. Other regions that have good representative collections include California, Mexico, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Mauritius, East Africa and Japan. Genera with comprehensive representation include: most kelps (especially Alaria, Laminaria, and Saccharina), and common green (Ulva ) and red algal genera (Chondracanthus, Mastocarpus, Mazzaella, Palmaria, Porphyra, Prionitis, etc.), many of which were studied by Dr. R. F. Scagel, his students and associates, are well represented in the collection.
Algal groups other than green, brown and red seaweeds (including Chrysophyta, Cyanophyta, Pyrrophyta, and Xanthophyta) are also represented by a small number of collections. The crustose coralline red algal collection constitutes the second largest assemblage of coralline specimens in North America. All known species of seaweeds occurring in the region are represented, but less common species are represented by relatively few specimens.
Type Specimens: 131
Bryophytes
The Bryophyte Collection at UBC is the largest and most comprehensive one in Canada and one of the largest in the world.
The major representation is for British Columbia and adjacent states of the United States: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona, in particular. Strong representation is also for the Atlantic provinces of Canada, largely through R.J. Belland. For Europe the Collection has modest holdings; for Australia and New Zealand the collections are representative, but not extensive. The same is true for Japan, Taiwan and the Hawaiian Islands. Lowest representation is for Africa and South America. Genera with most comprehensive representation are: Mosses; Andreaea, Grimmia, Hygrohypnum, Hypnum, Hylocomium, Isothecium, Philonotis, Racomitrium, Rhytidiadelphus, Sanionia, Schistidium, Sphagnum, Takakia, Tetraphis, Tetrodontium and Hepatics; Anastrophyllum, Diplophyllum, Gymnomitrion, Lophozia (s.l.), Marsupella, Plagiochila, Ptilidium, Scapania.
Type specimens: 220
Fungi
The Fungi Collection is home to the largest research collection of macrofungi of British Columbia.
The collection of Agaricales (mushrooms) section has expanded rapidly in the recent years. The museum also has extensive holdings from the order Tremellales due to Dr. R.J. Bandoni’s interest and research in the group. The collection housed a few of his types in the groups: Fibulobasidium sirobasidioides, Mycogloea amethystina, M. bullatospora, M. nipponica, Sirotrema parvula and S. pusilla.
Type specimens: 12
Lichen
With 40,000 lichens specimens catalogued to date, the UBC Herbarium houses one of the largest collections in western North America.
We have a very solid macrolichen collection, with a strong focus on cyanolichens, especially the genus Peltigera. For this genus, at least, this is certainly the largest collection in North America. The Collection is also strong in Calicioids as well as in other microlichen groups characteristic of oldgrowth forests. Taken as a whole, the Collection is very strong on epiphytic lichens, and rather strong on terricolous lichens, especially macrolichens.
Prominent collectors include: George Otto, with 2,500 accessions; Willa Noble 2,200; Teuvo Ahti 450; Irwin Brodo 700; Trevor Goward 15,000. Of the entire Lichen Collection, 66% are from B.C., 12 are from the rest of Canada and the other 12% are from smaller collections from around the world.
Type Specimens: 45
Vascular Plants
The UBC Herbarium has the world's largest collection of British Columbia vascular plants and is worldwide in scope. Of the 222,000 vascular plant specimens, about 45% are from British Columbia. About 22% are from the rest of Canada, with the Northwest Territories and Yukon especially well represented. Specimens from the United States make up about 16% of the Collection, with 9% from the five Pacific Coast states (California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska) and 7% from the rest of the United States. Hawaiian plants are especially well represented. About 17% of the Collection is from the rest of the world, with the largest numbers from Great Britain, Finland, China, Australia, Denmark, Japan, South Africa, Taiwan, Russia, Greenland, and Sweden. At present, the Collection includes more than 222,000 accessioned specimens.
Type Specimens: 90
Data Base Access
The algae, lichen, and fungi collections have all been fully databased, and the bryophyte and vascular plant collections are 60% complete. All collections are awaiting typographical editing and updates of nomenclatural changes.
Search: Bryophytes | Fungi | Lichen | Algae | Vascular Plants
External Databases: Algal Types Database | Capilano River Regional Park Fungi | Fungi from Mycorrhizal Western Hemlock
News from the Herbarium
History
John Davidson started the Herbarium in 1912, at which point it was mostly vascular plants. It was originally located in the Botanical Offices in downtown Vancouver, and moved to UBC campus in 1925. Collections were housed in various buildings close to their curators, and it was not until in 1973 that all the Herbarium Collections were consolidated in the Biology building.
It is not known how many specimens were in the seed collection, but in its early days the Collection grew rapidly with the donation of entire collections, sometimes containing 1000 plants each. Notable donations include: A.J. Hill, Eli Wilson, W. Taylor, and A.E. Baggs.
The initial specimens for the Algal Collection were donated by Mrs. Mirian Armstead, but in the early days of the botany department there were no faculty appointed to work on macroalgae, and the collection grew slowly. In 1952, when Dr. Robert Scagel was appointed, the Collection took up less than one herbarium case. Under his direction, and with the help of graduate students and postdocs, the Collection grew to its present size of 67,000 specimens.
V.J. Krajina established the Bryological Collection in 1949. In 1960, the University appointed W.B. Schofield, the first bryologist to be hired by a Canadian university. Dr. Schofield is a legendary collector, and his tireless efforts have grown the Collection to its present stature as the largest bryophyte herbarium in Canada, and one of the largest in the world.
Contact
UBC Herbarium
Department of Botany
University of British Columbia
3529 - 6270 University Boulevard
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6T 1Z4
Phone: (604) 822-3344
Fax: (604) 822-6089
Email: ubc.herbarium@ubc.ca
Director: Dr. Jeannette Whitton
jwhitton@interchange.ubc.ca
(604) 822-8863
Collections Manager: Olivia Lee
olivia.lee@botany.ubc.ca
(604) 822-3344
Collections Manager: Linda Jennings (Lipsen)
linda.jennings@ubc.ca
(604) 822-9740
Database Manager: Amber Saundry
amber.saundry@botany.ubc.ca
(604) 822-3344
Curator of Algae: Dr. Michael Hawkes
mhawkes@interchange.ubc.ca
(604) 822-5430
Curator of Algae: Dr. Sandra Lindstrom
sandracl@interchange.ubc.ca
Curator of Coralline Algae: Dr. Patrick Martone
pmartone@interchange.ubc.ca
Curator of Bryophytes: Dr. Judith Harpel
jharpel@interchange.ubc.ca
Curator of Fungi: Dr. Mary Berbee
berbee@interchange.ubc.ca
(604) 822-3780
Curator of Lichens: Trevor Goward
tgoward@interchange.ubc.ca
Curator of Vascular Plants: Dr. Jeannette Whitton
jwhitton@interchange.ubc.ca
(604) 822-8863
Curator of Eudicots: Dr. Quentin Cronk
quentin.cronk@ubc.ca
Curator of Monocots and Basal Angiosperms: Dr. Sean Graham
swgraham@interchange.ubc.ca
Field Notes
