Rowe Love Herbarium

Lane Community College - LCEU

Location:

Lane Community College (LCC), Science Division, 4000 E 30th Ave, Eugene OR 97405. Science and Math Bldg (#16), Room 117~A, located behind Room 117. LCC Main Campus Map

Hours:

By appointment. Please contact Susan Holmes at (541) 463-5084 or Holmess@lanecc.edu

Loans:

We welcome examination and annotation of the specimens by experts in the field. Specimen loans will be made upon request. Standard herbarium procedures are followed.

Herbarium References:

Index Herbariorum:

The Collection

There were 3,457 specimens accessioned and entered in the herbarium database as of November 2011. This collection contains specimens from 140 families, 605 genera, and 1,525 species, subspecies and varieties. The majority of these are from Oregon (2,701), Washington (256), and California (134). However plants from other states (233) and some other countries including Mexico (46) and Canada (80) are part of the collection. These data are all shared with the Oregon Flora Project.

The 27 oldest specimens were collected in 1925, by W.G. Bennett from Pullman and Wawawai, Washington (Whitman county) to Divide Creek and Moscow Mountains in Idaho. A significant historic collection made in the early 1930's by Rayma Brown represents the flora from the Spencer's Butte area in Eugene, Oregon and was originally prepared for Eugene High School. Also from that decade are two sheets of Asclepias mexicana Cav., collected by Arthur T. Evans in July 1936 at the Dalles, Oregon. These were the result of an exchange from the Willard Sherman Turrell Herbarium at Miami University in Oxford Ohio for duplicate Trifoluim specimens from our herbarium.

Other notable specimens, because of their current rare or endangered status, are Lomatium bradshawii (Bradshaw's desert parsley), collected before it acquired its rare plant status, Neviusia cliftonii (Shasta snow-wreath), collected with a permit from the US Forest Service and Sidalcea hendersonii (Henderson's checkermallow), collected at Cox Is Or., with permission from the Nature Conservancy.

History

Stewardship:

The herbarium collection was initiated in 1964 when the college was established. It has been registered in the Index Herbariorum (LCEU) at the New York Botanical Garden since 1967 when Jay Marston, a Lane Community College (LCC) biology instructor, was the curator. Glenn Heiserman, the first LCC botany instructor to collect, contributed 29 specimens between 1964 and 1967. Subsequently, two prominent LCC botany instructors, Freeman Rowe and Dr. Rhoda M. Love, have made major contributions to the collection over the past three decades. Dr. Love contributed 852 specimens collected from 1958 through 2010 and F. Rowe contributed 371 specimens collected from 1972 to 2001. Dr. Love curated the collection until her retirement in 1996. Gail Baker oversaw herbarium operation from 1996 until her retirement in 2012. She also initiated and coordinated the 2004 herbarium dedication to Freeman Rowe and Rhoda Love in 2004. Susan Holmes, plant science instructor at LCC, continues stewardship of the Rowe-Love Herbarium as of 2013.

Collections:

In addition to professional botanists, LCC students have contributed to the collection during and after enrollment. A notable student was Julie Kierstead Nelson who collected 41 specimens between 1974 and 1975. She was responsible for many botanical illustrations that are still in use in the LCC botany courses today and 285 special laminated student study specimens. More information about Julie's contributions follows.

Acquiring the Herbarium Space:

In the spring of 2001, the 2,600 pressed plant specimens housed in cabinets in a classroom and hallway at LCC were moved to a formal space specifically designed to accommodate the collection. This was the result of a remodeling and addition to the Science and Mathematics Building on campus. The space provides counter workspace with full-length windows, file cabinets and shelves for herbarium records, maps, reference works, Floras, and a variety of herbarium materials. The herbarium is equipped with computers that afford access to the database and internet and is is conveniently located behind the Plant Sciences classroom (16/117). This provides increased opportunities for study, reference and research.

Teaching & Research

The collection is predominantly for teaching and is used extensively by students in the biology and botany major's courses (Bi 212 & Bot 213) and in 100 level plant biology courses. The specimens are used when live examples are past blooming or otherwise unavailable, and also to show examples of plants that cannot be collected each year due to conservation concerns. The collection has also been an important reference for a variety of research projects such as Vascular Plants of Lane County Oregon: An annotated checklist and taxonomic treatments for the ongoing Oregon Flora Project (OFP) and Oregon Plant Atlas. For example, 26 specimens of Trifolium were loaned to Michael Vincent, the botanist responsible for the treatment of this genus for the OFP. A specimen of Torolis arvesis was loaned to Zack Murrell, herbarium curator at Appalachian State University in 2012. Other species requested and loaned over the years have included Corallorhiza (Orchidaceae), Salix (Salicaceae), Lupinus (Fabaceae), Brodiaea (sensu lato) (Liliaceae), Penstamon (Scrophulariaceae, new Plantaginaceae) and Crataegus (Rosaceae).

Databasing & Accessioning

In October 2002 a project to database all sheets in the herbarium was coordinated by Clay Gautier, Oregon Flora Atlas Project Leader and assisted by LCC students. Label information for the entire collection at that time was successfully entered by June 2003. Since the database has been established, all new acquisitions are entered on an annual basis and shared with the OFP. Gautier and the students used software from Oregon State University, aligned with the OFP, to record the information for each specimen. Minimum data required to accession a specimen is a complete scientific name, any annotations, collector's name, collection date, habitat, phenology (flowering, fruiting), and associated species; the few specimens missing these data are not entered in the database but remain part of the collection. Only vascular plants have been accessioned, although the herbarium also houses some bryophytes, lichens, fungi and marine algae.

Herbarium Work Parties

Annual herbarium work parties are held during late summer. Each August or September since 1998 up to a dozen volunteers devote a morning to mounting pressed plant specimens that have been collected over the previous year(s). Volunteers are introduced to the herbarium and shown a variety of professional skills needed for the task. New specimens are mounted, labeled, accessioned and entered in the data-base. This has been extremely helpful in keeping our herbarium updated. Community and Native Plant Society of Oregon members and many former LCC botany students participate in these work parties.

All interested individuals are invited and encouraged to participate in the work parties that are announced in the Bulletin of the Native Plant Society of Oregon. Please contact Susan Holmes at the address on the first page if interested in work party events.

Future Plans for the Herbarium and Financial Support

With on-going specimen additions, data-basing, taxonomic name changes and specimen annotations the herbarium has the potential to grow even more as a learning facility and tool for botanical research. A mycology collection was initiated in 2012 by Susan Holmes. Currently she is working with LCC students to build and database a fungal collection. As of September 2013, there were 172 specimens in the collection. Primarily used for teaching, the fungal collection also houses voucher specimens collected from student undergraduate research projects on fungal population ecology from LCC's campus forest.

Financial contributions or contributions of floras and historical botanical books can be made through the LCC Foundation Herbarium Project #2101 directly, or through the current herbarium steward and director.