SCSU’s herbarium perserves rare plants

Behind the door of room 216 in the Wick Science Building is a collection of over 30,000 plant specimens dating back to the 1800s.

The SCSU herbarium houses some of the oldest pieces of history at SCSU.

Jorge Arriagada, a professor of Biological Sciences at SCSU, has been working with the SCSU Herbarium for the past 10 years and has helped expand the collection by over 10,000 specimens during that time.

The herbarium at SCSU officially dates back to 1869 and its collection owes its growth over the years to student and faculty collections and donations from around the world.

Some of those contributions came from Gerald Wheeler, who is executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, which is the world’s largest professional organization representing science educators of all grade levels.

Arriagada’s work required him travel to various countries and collect plant specimens and he has worked with the Herbarium at Ohio State and the New York State Museum.

Arriagada said the number one thing that the Herbarium offers to students, the public and professional is information.

“Information is critical for any type of research,” Arriagada said.

The herbarium keeps track of plant information that has medical and medicinal uses.

Although the current space for the herbarium is limited, it remains the second largest herbarium in Minnesota.

Arriagada said the herbarium faces an obstacle because there is a large collection of back-logged species.

On a given day,  Arriagada said that up to 20 specimens could be prepared using the preservation method.

However, with the lack of help, the back-log continues to grow.

Arriagada said there is a lack of help is because students working with the herbarium are usually only around for a year or two.

Arriagada does receive help from three students, Kayla Malone, a graduate student and Jaime Hanson and Carrie Boucher, both undergraduate seniors.

Boucher said that the herbarium is a valuable resource to anybody that wants to go into plant research.

Malone said the herbarium is also important because it preserves rare plant specimens and keeps them on a local record.

The specimen records are arranged from most primitive to most evolved, with the label names listing scientific name, where it was located, the habitat, who collected it and the date of collection.

In addition, to make the process of locating the records easier, the folders that house the specimens are arranged by color.

Tan represents a specimen found in Minnesota, blue, other states, and red, other countries.

The herbarium also receives requests from across the U.S. about their database for plant DNA requests.

Arriagada said the DNA for the plant specimens can be monitored for thousands of years, meaning the herbarium usage can continue to be a large learning and research component for SCSU, the community, and professionals for years to come.

More information about the herbarium can be found at the Web site, www1.stcloudstate.edu/herbarium.