An important collection of several hundred native Ribes specimens collected in the 1930s by former Herbarium Director Norman C. Fassett was recently transferred to WIS.

The International Institute for Species Exploration at AZ State University included Viola liliputana as one of the top 10 new species of 2013. The tiny Peruvian violet was collected by WIS Emeritus Director, Dr. Hugh H. Iltis, and published along with UWMadison Botany alumnus Dr. Harvey Ballard.

A marvelous gift to the Botany Department recently came from Professor Emeritus Hugh H. Iltis and his wife Sharyn Wisniewski.

Today marked a milestone in the history of the Wisconsin State Herbarium as Mr. Theodore S. Cochrane, Senior Academic Curator, retired after more than 42 years of service.

NSF’s Division of Arctic Programs has awarded a collaborative grant to the Wisconsin State Herbarium (WIS) and the University of Alaska’s Museum (ALA) in Fairbanks to provide baseline biodiversity inventory data for one of the most important elements of the Arctic biota – lichens.

All the nearly 20,000 plant species in North America are attacked by insect pests, including those in the group Hemiptera (known as the “true bugs”), which are in turn attacked by parasitoid insects in the Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants), widely used for biological control of agricultural pests.

Lichens and bryophytes (mosses and their relatives) are sensitive indicators of environmental change, and are dominant organisms in arctic-alpine and desert habitats, where the effects of climate change are well-documented.

Nearly 15,000 vascular plant specimens were accessioned into our collection this year as a gift from the Department of Biology at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI.