University of Alabama Herbaria

Visit the Herbarium website.

The University of Alabama Herbarium (UNA), the herbarium of the Department of Biological Sciences, houses about 64,000 specimens of vascular plants, about 6,000 specimens of mosses, and a few liverworts, lichens, algae, and fungi. These include The Mohr Herbarium (formerly ALU) ca. 4500 specimens on permanent loan from the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Eugene Allen Smith initiated the Mohr Herbarium in the late 19th century when he was State Geologist. The oldest specimens in the collection date to the 1870's, specimens collected by Dr. Smith and Dr. Denny, who was then the University President. Dr. Smith contracted with Mr. Charles Mohr, a Mobile pharmacist, who had amassed a fairly large collection of plants from the Mobile area. The contract was for Mr. Mohr to prepare a Flora of Alabama. Mr. Mohr collected throughout the State. The Mohr Herbarium formed the basis for Plant Life of Alabama, which was published in 1901.

Dr. Ralph Chermock, Professor of Biology, founded the University of Alabama herbarium in the 1950's. Dr. Chermock and his wife added several thousand specimens to a few thousand that had been collected by Dr. Roland Harper, a University professor in the first half of the 20th century. The collection began to grow in the late 1950's when Dr. Joab Thomas came to the University and assumed curatorship of the herbarium. Dr. Thomas and his students concentrated on Mobile County, Bankhead National Forest, and the Blackbelt Region of Alabama. During this time, the Mohr Herbarium was placed on permanent loan to the University Herbarium. The collection grew to about 30,000 specimens during Dr. Thomas' tenure and stayed at that size until Dr. Robert Haynes came to the University in 1976. Since then, the herbarium has approximately doubled in size.

The herbarium serves the three functions of the University: teaching, research, and service. Classes in botany make use of the collection for instructional purposes. A separate teaching collection is maintained with specimens of the local flora. The collections serve as a repository of research materials for study by students and faculty at the University of Alabama and, through loans, at herbaria worldwide. The collections are used for determining plants for the general public.

The herbarium is in the process of digitizing its specimen data. The data can be searched on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). We are participating in the Checklist of Vascular Plants of Alabama project and accompanying county level atlas and are reviewing the identifications in the collection to determine which species have been documented to occur in the state and in each county.

It has an exceptionally good representation of aquatic vascular plants. The main strength of the collection is of Alabama specimens, with around 95% of the species known to grow within the State being preserved in the collection.

For more information about the collections Visit the Herbarium website or contact Dr. John L. Clark, Curator (jlclark4[at]bama.ua.edu) or Mr. Steve Ginzbarg, Collections Manager (sginzbar[at]biology.as.ua.edu).