Iowa's Herbaria

Iowa's herbaria are important resources both to the state and to the larger "botanical community". The two-thirds of a million or so specimens contained in Iowa's herbaria are used in various ways for research, teaching, plant identification, and supplying general information about plants. Iowa's larger herbaria are part of a global network, making possible loans, exchanges, and other interactions with herbaria around the world. While Iowa's herbaria contain specimens from many parts of the United States and the world, collectively they house the most complete record of Iowa plants and fungi. The following information is from Index Herbariorum: The Herbaria of the World (1990) - some of the information is available (and cited here) in a more recently updated online database at https://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/ .

InstitutionDate
founded
Number of
specimens (2020)
Contact person
Cornell College (MOVC)19671,500Marty Condon
MCondon@cornellcollege.edu
319-895-4154
Drake University19583400Tom Rosburg
thomas.rosburg@drake.edu
515-271-2920
Grinnell College (GRI)190020,000Vince Eckhart
515-269-3028
Iowa State University (ISC)
www.herbarium.iastate.edu
1870655,000 (including IA)Deb Lewis
dlewis@iastate.edu
515-294-9499
Iowa Lakeside Laboratory (ILH)19096,000Lori Biederman
lbied@iastate.edu
515-294-2488
Luther College (LCDI)19681,000Beth Lynch
lynchbet@luther.edu
Putnam Museum (BDI)
www.putnam.org
186718,750Christine Chandler
cchandler@putnam.org
563-336-7287
Simpson College (SICH)1956500William Gilbert
515-961-1823
University of Iowa (IA)
(transferred to ISC in 2004)
1878220,000Deb Lewis
dlewis@iastate.edu
515-294-9499
University of Northern Iowa
(ISTC)
 49,000Steve O’Kane
steve.okane@uni.edu
319-273-2219
Upper Iowa University (UIU)18573,000Scott Figdore
figdores@uiu.edu
563-425-5223
Wartburg College (WET)19303,000Johanna Foster
johannafoster@wartburg.edu
319-353-8708