The Herbarium
Staff
Andrew Hipp, Ph.D.,Plant Systematist & Herbarium Curator
Bethany Hayward, Research Assistant
Marlene Hahn, Herbarium Assistant
Link to herbarium data access
Areas of Study
The herbarium houses more than 170,000 dried plant specimens and 19,000 lichens, many from Illinois and Missouri. It is the third largest arboretum herbarium in North America. The primary emphasis of the herbarium collection is woody plants, both cultivated and spontaneous.
Another important collection vouchers the flora of the Chicago region. The Chicago region is defined by 24 counties:five in Wisconsin, seven in Indiana, one in Michigan, and the remaining 11 in Illinois. Over 2,500 taxa are recorded from this area and have representatives in the herbarium from each of the counties in which they occur. This herbarium collection is the database for Swink and Wilhelm's Plants of the Chicago Region (1994). The Arboretum has the most complete collection of dried plants for this rich and diverse flora.
The herbarium contains several other important collections.
- More than 20,000 specimens collected by Erwin Evert from the area of Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding mountains in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
- Most of Gerould Wilhelm's collection of plants from the western panhandle of Florida and southern Alabama counties
- A portion of E. J. Palmer's collection from the early 1900's
- The vouchers of Vauquelinia, which William Hess monographed, and the genera Nolina and southwestern Yucca that Hess studied for the Flora of North America.
- The vouchers of the plants collected in the United States for the National Cancer Institute's anti-AIDS and cancer testing program.
Developed by three partner institutions—The Morton Arboretum, Field Museum, and Chicago Botanic Garden—vplants, a virtual herbarium, is yet another resource. A web-accessible herbarium, with images of more than 72,000 plant specimens from 24 counties in the region, it is a logical evolution of Swink and Wilhelm's Plants of the Chicago Region, offering easily accessible information to anyone interested in plants.
Visit vPlants™, a Virtual Herbarium of the Chicago Region.