Plant Collections

Greenhouse

The Ray Ethan Torrey Botanical Greenhouse comprises a collection of living plants encompassing plant diversity. The collection includes plants in nearly 700 genera from more than 225 families. These families represent angiosperms, gymnosperms, and pteridophytes.

Of special interest are many species from families considered "basal" and "primitive" as well as unusual representatives of carnivorous plants, succulents, orchids, ferns, non-vascular plants, and plants of economic importance.

The greenhouse has facilities for research as well as teaching. Guided tours may be arranged. Further information is available on the Greenhouse web page, by contacting the greenhouse manager , Teddi Bloniarz, or the curator, Tobias Baskin.

Herbarium

Curator: Karen Searcy

Searchable databases:

Poland Collection
Holyoke Range Checklist
Hepaticae Collection
Type Specimen

The University of Massachusetts Herbarium, Amherst, is a regional resource with approximately 241,000 mounted vascular plants, algae and bryophtyes as well as a fruit and seed collection. The collection is world wide in scope due in large part to an extensive exchange program during the time H. E. Ahles was curator (1966-1981), but the focus is on Western Massachusetts and New England. Other well represented geographical areas include Eastern North America and the tropical pacific (Collections largely from O. Degener and A. C. Smith).

Historically important collections include the State Cabinet (The Massachusetts State Herbarium collected prior to 1850, the 15,000 specimen collection of W. W. Denslow (1826-1868) and the 25,000 specimen collection of Addison Brown (1830-1913). The latter collection has specimens collected by Pringle, Parish, J. T. Howell and A. A. Heller and includes many types.

Collections of local interest include those of A. S. Goodale and colleagues from the Swift River Watershed, much of which is now under the Quabbin Reservoir, the New England collections of H. E. Ahles and the collection from Deerfield and adjacent towns by Roberta G. Poland.

Incorporated herbaria include Amherst College Herbarium (AC), started in 1829 by Professor Edward Hitchcock and one of the oldest herbaria in the country,and the recently acquired (1998) Phippen-LaCroix Herbarium (TUFT).

Searchable Databases

Roberta G. Poland Deerfield Area Collections

Roberta Poland taught mathematics and physics at Deerfield Academy, Deerfield MA and was an active and dedicated botanist. This catalogue is based on the specimens from the Deerfield area.

Holyoke Range Checklist

Checklist of Vascular Plants from the Holyoke Range Massachusetts, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts

Hepaticae

Catalogue of Hepaticae from Massachusetts. These specimens are duplicates from the collection of Dr. R. M. Schuster. Most of his collection is in the Field Museum.

Type Specimens

We are the process of cataloging the approximately 1000 type specimens in our collection. Many of the types are from the herbarium of Addison Brown LL. D. (1830-1913) which was given to Amherst College in 1915. Most types in the catalogue have been checked against electronic type catalogs of the Harvard University Herbaria (HUH) the Smithsonian (US) or the New York Botanical Garden (NY). Other verification is indicated by the name person doing the verification.

Types from the following families have been catalogued: Acanthaceae, Alismaceae, Amaranthaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Apiaceae, Apocynaceae, Arecaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, Brassicaceae, Bromeliaceae, Burseraceae, Campanulaceae, Capparaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Cistaceae, Commelinaceae, Convolvulaceae, Crassulaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Cyperaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Fagaceae, Gentianaceae, Juncaceae, Liliaceae, Lythraceae, Malvaceae, Onagraceae, Piperaceae, Rubiaceae, Santalaceae, Sapindaceae, Symplocaceae, Theaceae, Verbenaceae.

Please direct questions or comments to Karen Searcy, Curator <ksearcy@bio.umass.edu>