About the Herbarium
History
The Harold M. Tucker Herbarium, located on the first floor of Boone Hall, is the oldest herbarium in Idaho. Since its founding by William Judson Boone in the early days of the college, the herbarium has been used extensively by students as well as botanists and botanical organizations from throughout the country. Boone turned management of the collection over to former student and then-new botany professor Harold M. Tucker in 1930. Tucker knew the region's flora as well as anyone and took hundreds of students on botany field trips to the surrounding countryside. He added extensively to the collection until his death in 1959.
Replacing Tucker was legendary professor Patricia L. Packard who taught botany and served as herbarium curator from 1959 to 1989. Under Packard, the herbarium collection grew several times over, moved to its present location, and was named after Tucker. In 1989, Don Mansfield replaced the retiring Packard and currently serves as the herbarium’s curator and botany professor.
Stats
The herbarium contains about 35,000 specimens, mostly from southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon. Some, such as Artemisia packardiae and Senecio ertterae were discovered by and named after Albertson faculty and students.
Mission
The College of Idaho is a liberal arts college focusing on quality undergraduate education. The H.M. Tucker Herbarium is operated under the Biology Department and has served for over a century as a means of enabling undergraduate students to participate in research in floristics, systematics, and evolutionary and conservation biology. The botanists of the Biology Department have curated the herbarium since the beginning days when Presbyterian minister, botanist, and college founder William Judson Boone first collected plants with his students in the 1890’s.
The area of focus is southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. Most collections are from south of the Salmon River and west of Cassia County in Idaho and from Harney and Malheur Counties in Oregon. Recently the collections in mostly Harney County allowed current curator Don Mansfield to prepare the Flora of Steens Mountain (Oregon State University Press, 2000)
Current Efforts and Services
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service frequently use the herbarium to document locations of rare or endangered plants, to help identify unknown species and to define habitats for specific plants. Nationally, the New York Botanical Garden and other research centers around the country use the herbarium to research catalogued flora from the Intermountain West and Pacific Northwest. The scientific facility is used heavily by students, including some who have published papers and made significant contributions to botanical study of the western U.S.
After completing the Flora of Steens Mountain in 2000, Don Mansfield has worked on several projects including a Flora of the Owyhee Uplift for which he has collected, identified, and preserved over 4000 specimens. Work on this Flora is ongoing.
Directions
For directions to the herbarium, click here.
