Herbarium

Desert Poppy (Kallstroemia grandiflora); image by A.H. Harris.

The Herbarium contains over 66,000 catalogued plant specimens, the data base for which is completely computerized. The present curator, Richard Worthington, took over the curatorial responsibilites in 1980; the prior curators were A. H. Harris (1971-76) and W. H. Reid (1976-80). The dry climate and relatively pest-free environs of the El Paso area make for excellent specimen preservation and color retention. Moreover, data standards are high, and many sheets representing material collected by LEB personnel are accompanied by a detailed locality map. Thus, although the collection is at present relatively small from the standpoint of a "typical" university herbarium, it is highly useful in terms of quality of specimens and data retrieval.

Geographic coverage for southwestern North America is quite good. Overall geographic content of the Herbarium is approximately as follows: Texas, 33%; New Mexico, 22%; other USA, 27%; Mexico, 11%; other world, 7%. The most extensive coverage is in El Paso County, Texas, and Dona Ana County, New Mexico (represented by an excess of 3,000 and 1,500 collections respectively). Depth from outside the New Mexico/West Texas area has been largely accrued through exchanges of specimens with other Southwestern herbaria, particularly those of the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Oklahoma College of Arts & Letters, Northeastern Louisiana State University, and the University of California at Riverside.

Herbarium materials at UTEP that are of special interest include:

• Extensive representation of the floras of the desert mountain ranges of southern New Mexico and western Texas, collections arising from Dr. Worthington's research on these assemblages. This research in part comprises a thorough floral survey and inventory across an east-west transect running from the Guadalupe/Davis Mountains of Texas to the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.
• Voucher samples of specimens from which nectar samples were collected for the nectar chemistry research of C. E. Freeman and W. H. Reid.
• A seed collection, representing more than 800 species of mostly Southwestern taxa. The individual samples are mounted on slides and, because of our computerized files, are cross-indexed to their source sheets in the main herbarium collection.
• A cryptogamic component in excess of 650 collections. These are predominately lichens and mosses from various areas in southwestern North America, although there is are significant collections of local specimens. The latter have been used for baseline data in studies by R. D. Worthington and his students on air pollution effects in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez area.
• A synoptic collection from White Sands National Monument, representing survey work performed by W. H. Reid during the early 1970's.

Last Update: 22 Sep 2004