Purdue University Herbaria library and Assistant Nick Harby (Purdue Agricultural Communication photo/Tom Campbell)
Purdue University Herbaria
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology
Purdue University
915 West State Street
West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2054
United States
M .Catherine Aime, Director
Email: maime@purdue.edu
The Purdue University Herbaria include:
- The Arthur Herbarium (PUR)
- The Kriebel Herbarium (PUL)
The Arthur Herbarium was established in 1887 by Dr. Joseph C. Arthur, a pioneer American plant pathologist and mycologist. The Herbarium is housed within the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University and is considered one of the most important collections of plant rust fungi in the world with almost 110,000 specimens collected from a across a broad geographic distribution and historical time line. The collection has representative specimens for all 14 rust fungi families and for 132 genera (of an estimated 168 total). There are 3758 specimens noted as being of type status in the cataloged Arthur Herbarium collection—nearly half of the described species of rust fungi. Its past curators, Arthur, George B. Cummins (1938–1971), and Joe F. Hennen (1971–1995), are known the world over as the leading scientists in the field of Urediniology (the study of rust fungi).
The Kriebel HerbariumThe vascular plant collection at Purdue University is the oldest in the state of Indiana and has been in existence since the very inception of the university. As Purdue opened its doors for the first time in 1874, only six professors had been hired to teach. One was John Hussey (1860–1970), a botany professor. He brought his personal plant collection as a teaching aid for his students, and Hussey's specimens are still in the Kriebel Herbarium to this day. The Herbarium itself is named in honor of Ralph M. Kriebel (1897–1946), a botanist who joined Purdue in 1943. The Kriebel Herbarium is managed by the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology and comprises approximately 75,000 specimens, including vascular plants, algae, bryophytes and fungi.