The NEBS Vascular Plant Herbarium
The NEBS (acronym NEBC) Herbarium contains over 350,000 vascular plant collections from the six New England states, including historic collections by Merritt Fernald, Kate Furbish, James Watson Robbins, and William Oakes.
Major objectives of the collection are to support scientific research on plant systematics and ecology by representing the diversity, historic and current distributions of taxa occurring spontaneously in New England. The herbarium also serves as a repository for voucher specimens documenting published systematic or ecological studies. Type specimen data and other records are included in the Harvard University Herbaria online databases.
The NEBS welcomes additions to the herbarium that support our mission. Detailed information on the acquisition policy is provided in the pdf file Vascular Herbarium Acquisition Policy. Collectors are urged to contact the Curator before submitting specimens. Please also consult the Collecting Guidelines, Plant Collecting Ethics, and our Policy on Permits and Permissions for details on our standards.
People
Curator of Vascular Plants: Dr. Lisa A. Standley (lisa_standley@verizon.net)
Assistant Curator: Allen Milby (amilby@fas.harvard.edu)
Associate Curator: Dr. Michaela Schmull (mschmull@oeb.harvard.edu)
Visiting the Herbarium/Loans
The NEBS Herbarium is integrated with the vascular holdings of the Harvard University Herbaria. Specimens are filed by state and county.
Society members are welcome to visit the HUH (see HUH webpage). While working in the combined NEBS/HUH New England collections, please take special care to keep the specimens and folders in exactly the order that you found them in and do not move or shuffle the barcode labels.
Visitors wishing to bring their own plant specimens into the herbarium for study purposes will need to submit their plant specimens at least 10 days prior to their planned visit in order that the material can be frozen.
All loans of specimens are handled through the Harvard University Herbaria, and are made to scientific institutions only. Please see the HUH website or contact huh-requests@oeb.harvard.edu to request a loan of vascular plant specimens from the NEBS herbarium.
Volunteering
Volunteers are needed to help process new acquisitions. Please contact the Curator if you are interested in becoming a volunteer.