Herbarium Collections

Emory Herbarium (GEO) now comprises nearly 24,000 specimens from the state of Georgia and worldwide, including:

Vascular PlantsBryophytesFungiLichensSpecial Collections

Vascular Plant Collection

Vascular plants, known as tracheophytes, as their name implies, contain vascular tissues – xylem and phloem. The presence of roots, stems, and leaves are the defining characteristics of vascular plants. The dominance of vascular plants on land has been ascribed to the development of deep roots, the development of the waterproof cuticle on the aerial parts of the plant, and the formation of tissues that provide mechanical support to parts of the plant above the ground. The vascular plants are divisible into the non-seed plants (lower vascular plants, or cryptogams, e.g., Ferns and Fern allies) and those that reproduce by seeds (higher vascular plants, or phanerogams, e.g., Gymnosperms and Angiosperms).

The Emory Herbarium has about 21,000 specimens of vascular plants. The collection is particularly rich in specimens from the Southeastern United States, including Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and South Carolina, but houses specimens from around the country and the world.

View Our Vascular Plant Collection
Yellow Lotus
Yellow lotus: Nelumbo lutea Willd. (Nelumbonaceae) a water plant native to North America

Bryophyte Collection

The first land plants were bryophytes. They are a group of nonvascular plants that include mosses, hornworts and liverworts. These primitive plants lack specialized tissues that allow them to transport water therefore, they tend to grow very close to the ground and live in moist environments. Despite their small size, they have leaflike, stem like and root like parts.

Bryophytes alternate between sexual and asexual reproduction throughout their life cycles. They produce sex organs during the gametophyte generation and spores during the sporophyte generation. Bryophytes have a gamete-forming body dominates in their life cycle. Bryophytes are very diverse and can be found in moist habitats all around the world.

Emory Herbarium currently has about 200 bryophytes. We are continuing adding unique collection of mosses from the ongoing floristic study of Lichens and mosses of Arabia mountain.

View Our Bryophyte Collection
Haircap moss
Haircap moss ( Polytrichum commune Hedw.) with spore cases. This is one of the showiest mosses distributed almost all over the world. It is easy to distinguish from similar species by its 4-angled and short-rectangular shape spore-capsules, rather than cylindrical or long-rectangular. Also, the lids of its spore capsules have flat round bases with short narrow beaks, rather than a conical shape or a flat rounded base with a long beak.

Fungi Collection

Fungi are their own kingdom separate from plants and animals. Characteristically at first, they may appear to look like plants, but Molecular studies suggest the fungi share a common ancestor with the amoebozoan and the animals.

The living part of a fungus is the mycelium, which are string-like projections that weave through soil or other “hosts.” A filament in a mycelium is called hypha (plural, hyphae).

All fungi are heterotrophs with chitin-reinforced cell walls. Most fungi grow in or on organic matter and digest their food outside their bodies because they don’t have digestive organs inside of them. Many fungi live off eating dead organisms as they are the largest portion of decomposers in the environment, but other types can be parasitic causing disease in humans and plants and some others are mutualistic with other living organisms like green algae or cyanobacteria which we called as lichens.

While fungi can be seen as parasitic causing diseases for plants and animals, they also are very beneficial to our day to day lives. We use yeast to make different foods like bread, beer, and wine. We also eat mushrooms in a variety of different meals ranging from portobello mushroom to most expensive white truffles.

We normally identify fungi by their reproductive parts, or fruiting bodies which are sometimes called mushrooms! They reproduce both sexually and asexually. Both ways they release resting spores which consists of a cell or cell surrounded by a wall. These spores spread the organism to new niches by means of air or water. So far, we have identified roughly 120,000 different types of fungi, yet scientists still disagree over what the real estimated amount total is.

Emory has about 500 of fungi specimens most are belong to Dr. L Hesler’s boletes collection collected during 1947.

View Our Fungi Collection
Marasmius graminum
Marasmius graminum (Lib.) Berk. (‎Marasmiaceae) This mushroom feeding on dead or dying plant matter; in this case, burnt grass leaves. It is usually distinguished by thin stalks, often resembling a wiry horse hair.

Lichen Collection

They may look like pieces of carpets on a forest floor, but they are not as simple as they seem. Lichens are complexes (mutualistic symbiosis) formed by fungi with a photosynthetic organism such as algae or cyanobacteria. Fungi in this symbiotic complex provide physical protection as well as water and inorganic salts to their algae partners, whereas the algae conduct photosynthesis and provide nutrients to the fungi. The fungi that make the lichen largely belong to ascomycetes, the “cup fungi” or basidiomycetes, the “mushrooms”. Generally, this symbiosis benefits the fungi more than the algae and the fungi determine the organism’s shape and texture. About 20,000 species of lichens are known worldwide and fungi naming based on the fungi partner.

Lichens are very resistant to cold and drought, which accommodate them for hostile habitats such as alpine, tundra and polar areas. However, most lichens are hi-light plants and are sensitive to air pollution, so few lichens grow in large cities and industrial parks. They can live for many years and survive aridity by becoming dormant and reabsorbing water quickly. They reproduce by breaking themselves into small pieces, called fragmentation or the disperse of special structures known as soredia (powdery propagules) and isidia (branched outgrowths).

Lichens are important to the ecosystem. They help form new soil layer through erosion of a rocky surface, which enables other plants to grow, and are therefore known as the pioneer plants. Their sensitivity to air pollution made them a good indicator of different levels of pollution based on the type of lichens present.

In terms of ethnobotanical uses, many lichens secrete anti-viral or anti-bacterial substance which can be developed into medications. They are also used as industrial raw materials. For example, the dye chrysalis lichen can be used to extract dyes, and the litmus paper manufactured from dye coats and litmus can be used to test the acidity of liquids based on the color change. Lichens can also be eaten by humans and animals, such as the reindeer moss mentioned above. Another example is the stone fungus: a specialty in China and Japan.

Emory Herbarium began establishing the lichen collection quite recently after it acquired a collection of about 300 specimens from local lichen specialists Sean Beeching and Malcom Hodges. Our current collection consists of about 1000 of specimens.

View Our Lichen Collection
Reindeer lichen, Caribou Moss
Reindeer lichen, Caribou Moss: Cladonia rangiferina (L.) F. H. Wigg. (Cladoniaceae). A lichen growing fully sun-exposed dry surfaces. Very hardy species found both I hot and cold climates. It is a lightly colored plant that has a 3 dimensional branching with a bushy appearance. This species is a vital source of food eaten by reindeer.

Special Collections

The Eyles Collection consists of 2,905 vouchered specimens collected for his Masters thesis, completed at Emory in 1938. These specimens also serve to voucher his two publications of southeastern aquatic plants, which remain the primary resources for aquatic and maritime plant identification in the southeast (1, 2). Fourteen specimens from the Eyles Collection were incorporated into the USDA National Arboretum Herbarium as first records of the geographical range of taxa in Georgia. Duplicates of these specimens are on file at GEO. Dr. Eyles extended his taxonomic work throughout his career, which specialized on aquatic host plants of mosquito species. Several taxa denoted as preferred mosquito host plants are vouchered at GEO (3).

References

  1. Eyles, D. E. (1963) A Guide and Key to the Aquatic Plants of the Southeastern United States, Public Health Bulletin 286, 1-151.
  2. Eyles, D. E., and Robertson, J. L. (1944) A Guide and Key to the Aquatic Plants of the S.E. United States, United States,  Public Health Service, Washington, D.C.
  3. Eyles, D. E. (1941) A photosociological study of the Castalia-Myriophyllum community of Georgia coastal plain boggy Ponds, American Midland Naturalist 26, 421-438.

The Thorne Collection comprises 4,582 vouchered specimens collected for Dr. Thorne’s Doctoral dissertation from Cornell University, Flora of Southwestern Georgia(4). This collection encompasses voucher specimens from four of the five World Wildlife Fund ecoregions currently recognized in Georgia. This collection has strong potential for use in a comparative study of shifting ecoregions in response to climactic changes in the region.

References

  1. Thorne, R. F. (1949) The Flora of Southwestern Georgia, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

The SABC collection was amassed as part of GEO’s largest specimen exchange to date. Over the course of twelve years, 806 specimens originating from the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia were received by GEO from WVU. These specimens are an important representation of Appalachian ecosystems and are of great value for teaching regional ecology. Some of these specimens were used during a training session held in 2014 for local elementary STEM educators to help illustrate how Atlanta sits at the junction of Appalachian, Piedmont, and Coastal ecosystems.

The collection of granite outcrop species comprises 383 specimens collected by Dr. Madeline Burbanck, former GEO Collections Manager, during her professional and personal research efforts to document the flora of the rare granite rock outcropping ecosystem(5). This collection includes species denoted as rare or endangered by the United States National Forest Service. The Burbanck Collection has special research and educational value for projects relating to ecological succession, as granite outcrops are an ideal model for studying plant succession and gradient-based speciation(6 - 8). Additionally, Dr. Burbanck’s collection of specimens was critical to her efforts to designate Mount Arabia, Georgia, a protected National Heritage Park.

References

  1. Burbanck, M. P., and Platt, R. B. (1964) Granite Outcrop Communities of the Piedmont Plateau in Georgia, Ecology 45, 292-306.
  2. Murdy, W. H. (1968) Plant speciation associated with granite outcrop communities of the southeastern Piedmont, Rhodora 70, 394-407.
  3. Shure, D. J., and Ragsdale, H. L. (1977) Patterns of Primary Succession on Granite Outcrop Surfaces, Ecology 58, 993 – 1006.
  4. Burbanck, M. P., and Phillips, D. L. (1983) Evidence of Plant Succession on Granite Outcrops of the Georgia Piedmont, American Midland Naturalist 109, 94-104.

This collection consists of 822 specimens belonging to two primary categories: those belonging to the “Medicinal Plants of the American Civil War” Collection (191 specimens) and those deposited by several Emory University researchers during the course of their various field expeditions studying the medicinal plants used by traditional cultures (631 specimens). A particular focus is placed on Arberëshë ethnobotany(9-11), south Italian collections(12, 13), and useful species of the Balkans(14-16). Of note, the data on Arberëshë plants is unique in that it represents data from an endangered linguistic group, of which less than 10,000 speakers survive today(17). This collection is rich in associated data, including scientific taxonomy, folk taxonomy, native ranges of plants, cultivation and management techniques, part of plant used, and often associated laboratory data such as gene sequences and phytochemical data. This collection also includes numerous direct artifacts of plants, such as wood samples, resins, fibers, toxic plants, fungi, spices, carvings, traditional medicinal tinctures and mineral-plant compounds, and processed crop plants. The Medical Botany Collection is currently used in the Emory University undergraduate courses HLTH 385: Food, Health and Society and HLTH 485/ BIOL 485: Botanical Medicine and Health. This collection is also of active interest to several international researchers, including researchers from the University of Prishtina (Prishtina, Kosovo) and University of Basilicata (Potenza, Italy).

References

  1. Pieroni, A., Nebel, S., Quave, C., Munz, H., and Heinrich, M. (2002) Ethnopharmacology of liakra: traditional weedy vegetables of the Arbereshe of the Vulture area in southern Italy, Journal of ethnopharmacology 81, 165 – 185.
  2. Pieroni, A., and Quave, C. (2006) Functional foods or food medicines? On the consumption of wild plants among Albanians and southern Italians in Lucania, Eating and Healing Traditional Food as Medicine, 101 – 129.
  3. Quave, C., and Pieroni, A. (2005) Folk illness and healing in Arbereshe Albanian and Italian communities of Lucania, southern Italy, Journal of Folklore Research 42, 57 – 97.
  4. Pieroni, A., Quave, C., and Santoro, R. (2004) Folk pharmaceutical knowledge in the territory of the Dolomiti Lucane, inland southern Italy, Journal of ethnopharmacology 95, 373 – 384.
  5. Pieroni, A., Quave, C., Villanelli, M., Mangino, P., Sabbatini, G., Santini, L., Boccetti, T., Profili, M., Ciccioli, T., Rampa, L., Antonimi, G., Girolamini, C., Cecchi, M., and Tomasi, M. (2004) Ethnopharmacognistic survey on the natural ingredients used in folk cosmetics, cosmeceuticals and remedies for healing skin diseases in the inland Marches, Central-Eastern Italy, Journal of ethnopharmacology 91, 331 – 344.
  6. Mustafa, B., Hajdari, A., Krasniqi, F., Hoxha, E., Ademi, H., Quave, C. L., and Pieroni, A. (2012) Medical ethnobotany of the Albanian Alps in Kosovo, Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 8, 6.
  7. Mustafa, B., Hajdari, A., Pajazita, Q., Syla, B., Quave, C. L., and Pieroni, A. (2011) An ethnobotanical survey of the Gollak region, Kosovo, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution.
  8. Quave, C. L., and Pieroni, A. (2014) Fermented foods for food sovereignty and food security in the Balkans: A case study of the Gorani people of northeastern Albania, Journal of Ethnobiology 34, 28-43.
  9. Moseley, C. (2010) Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd ed., UNESCO Publishing, http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas.