Submit Vouchered Specimens to the Wisconsin State Herbarium!
A herbarium voucher, a physical pressed specimen, provides verifiable and permanent records of species’ occurrences through time and space. Herbarium records are essential for management and biological research. Vouchers are used for tracking historical distributions, understanding modes of dispersal, studying climate change, and are essential for accurate identification and nomenclature. Although many invasive species are reported in counties across the state, associated herbarium records are often lacking. To see if a specimen has already been collected in your county, visit the Flora of Wisconsin database.
Please see here for a list of specific species and counties being targeted.
Although a properly prepared specimen by use of a plant press is best, creating a vouchered specimen can also be as simple as pressing gathered plant materials between a sheet of newspaper inside a heavy book, such as a phone book. Be sure to collect flowers and/or fruits along with vegetative material. Details on how to create a vouchered specimen here.
Note the following information and submit with your specimen:
- date of collection, collector
- detailed geographical data (lat/long coordinates, a description of specific locality, private or public land)
- ecological data (habitat, co-occurring species)
- size of population, number of individuals, if flowering or fruiting
Please send specimens to:
Wisconsin State Herbarium
Department of Botany, 160 Birge Hall
430 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
608-262-2792
You may also be able to arrange to drop off specimens at Herbarium locations in Stevens Point and Green Bay. Contact the curators for details:
Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium
UW Stevens Point
Stephanie Lyon- Curator
slyon@uwsp.edu, 715-346-4248
Gary A. Fewless Herbarium
UW Green Bay
Keir Wefferling- Curator
wefferk@uwgb.edu, 920-465-5032
