Abstract Detail

Kral-ing Through Time: The Impact of Robert Kral on the Past, Present, and Future of Botany in the Southeastern U.S

Rehman, Tiana [1].

The Vanderbilt University Herbarium: Honouring the Past, Looking to the Future.

The Vanderbilt University Herbarium (VDB) was founded in the 1930s at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America. In 1965, the collection consisted of 20,000 specimens and over the following 32 years, observed a >1300% increase in its holdings through the exchange, gift, and deposit of specimens, coordinated by curator Dr. Robert Kral. In 1997, the VDB was transferred to the herbarium of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), where it remains today, recognized as a separate collection within BRIT’s holdings. The VDB herbarium continues to represent an essential resource for botanists working in the southeastern United States, with over 200,000 specimens collected from that region. The top ten families (in order of decreasing numbers: Cyperaceae, Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Xyridaceae, Rosaceae, Brassicaceae, Ericaceae, and Scrophulariaceae) contribute more than 150,800 specimens to the collection. Current efforts to make this collection discoverable and accessible to the community will be discussed, in addition to an exploration of its rich character, history and incredible rate of growth.
The BRIT Herbarium (BRIT-SMU-VDB) will be open for visiting researchers, before, during, and after the Botany 2017 conference, by appointment: http://brit.org/herbarium.

1 - Botanical Research Institute Of Texas, Herbarium, 1700 University Drive, Fort Worth, TX, 76107-3400, USA

Keywords:
herbarium.

Presentation Type: Colloquium Presentations
Session: CO1, Kral-ing through time: the impact of Robert Kral on the past, present, and future of botany in the southeastern US
Location: Fort Worth Ballroom 4/Omni Hotel
Date: Monday, June 26th, 2017
Time: 9:00 AM
Number: CO1004
Abstract ID:514
Candidate for Awards:None