E.L. Reed Herbarium Repository Agreement with GUMO

The Herbarium is pleased to announce a new repository agreement with Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO), designating TTC as the voucher herbarium for all plant materials collected in the Park. Researchers seeking collection permits through GUMO will need to agree to the repository agreement, which allows the researchers to retain specimens for research purposes, but final specimens will be vouchered at E.L. Reed Herbarium. The agreement also gives the TTC Director the authority over loans and destructive sampling of specimens.

The park managers at GUMO selected TTC as we are one of the closest active herbaria to the park (a “short” four hour drive away) and because we maintain the Burgess-Northington collection. As part of an expedition when the Park first opened in the early 1970s, Burgess and Northington collected over 2000 specimens, representing a snapshot of the botanical community from 50 years ago. In the past few years, we have been digitizing the collection, and about 800 specimens have been fully digitized with precise georeferencing.

Texas Tech media published a story on the repository agreement, which covers the history of the collection, current research being conducted in the Johnson Lab, and comments from GUMO park managers. Click here to read the story!