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Using the Herbarium

The Colorado State University Herbarium is located in room E114 on the first floor of the Anatomy/Zoology Building and is managed by the Department of Biology in the College of Natural Sciences . The current hours are Tuesday 9-4, Wednesday 9-4, and Thursday 9-4. Arrangements can be made to use the herbarium at other times, but an appointment needs to be made in advance of anticipated use. To make an appointment, please call the herbarium (491-0496), curator Mark Simmons (491-2154), or the Biology Department office (491-7011).

The herbarium's collections are of inestimable scientific and historic value. The collection is dedicated to scientific research, teaching, and public education. Specimens may not, however, be removed from the herbarium, or used for class material; for such purposes a teaching collection is available in E206.

The Herbarium receives about 400 visitors annually. The Herbarium sends out about 10 - 15 loans per year to researchers throughout the U.S. Principle service activities of the herbarium include identification of plant specimens by faculty members and graduate students engaged in taxonomic , floristic, and ecological studies, and extension personnel studying weed or toxic plant control. Primary users include faculty and students on campus, The Nature Conservancy, the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, The National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

While visiting the herbarium, please handle the specimens with great care and follow the instructions given below:

1) Please sign the herbarium guest book. Explicitly state the purpose of your visit. Continued access to the herbarium depends on our ability to document its usefulness to the University and scientific community at large.

2) Specimens may not be removed from the herbarium.

3) Please do not remove individual specimens from the cabinet. When withdrawing specimens, remove the entire folder.

4) Folders and specimens must be kept in a horizontal position. Never turn specimens upside down, and do not treat them like the pages of a book.

5) Take folders to an available bench for examination.

6) Dissection or removal of specimen parts is not permitted.

7) Specimens must be returned to the same folder from which they were taken, and in the same order.

8) Make sure to return folders to the proper cabinet in alphabetical order. Misplacing specimens is the most common reason for "lost" specimens and requires considerable effort to relocate.

9) If you annotate specimens, please give them to the herbarium staff so they can be recorded.

10) Specimens may not be left outside of cabinets overnight. These specimens pose a threat to the collection by potentially harboring insects. For your personal collections, you may arrange temporary storage with the herbarium staff.

11) The herbarium database may only be used with the permission and assistance of the herbarium staff.

12) Please clean your work area when you are through and make sure all of the cabinets are closed. A floor broom, bench brush, and dust pan are located in the back of the herbarium by the sink.

Please note: Names of Colorado vascular plants are assigned using the most current and widely accepted scientific literature. Consequently, some names used in Harrington's Manual of the Plants of Colorado, and Weber's East Slope Flora or West Slope Flora may not have been used to arrange the specimens. It may be necessary to consult pertinent literature or the herbarium reprint collection to determine synonymy. Especially helpful in this regard are Weber's Catalog of Colorado Plants and Kartesz's A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (both located in the herbarium library).