The UCLA Herbarium permanently houses approximately 150,000 pressed and mounted specimens including 400 type specimens. The herbarium’s current focus is on the vascular plants of southern California and Baja California; our collection contains approximately 10,000 specimens from the Santa Monica Mountains, and substantial collections from the Simi Hills, Mojave and Colorado Deserts, and Baja California.
A horticultural collection of approximately 13,000 cultivated plants from Southern California are also stored at the herbarium.
Collections Scope
Although the focus of the herbarium is primarily the flora of California, the herbarium also contains specimens from all over the world, with approximately 30% of our collections from beyond North America. These represent historic collections (1920-1960) from Asia and the Pacific. We also have collections for all the major groups of plants, although our collection of macroalgae, lichens, and bryophytes is limited.
The herbarium also contains a library of taxonomic reference books and floras of North America, South America, and many other regions of the world.
Workstations with boom dissecting scopes are also available. The herbarium also has an available plant drier and freezer (for freezing specimens to control insects), and materials for mounting and repairing plant specimens.
Notable Collections
The UCLA Herbarium contains notable personal herbaria donated to UCLA including collections by O.H. Kappler (ca. 2,200 specimens, most of the Santa Monica Mountains), Lawrence L. Kiefer (ca. 3,700 specimens of ferns), Mary V. Hood (ca. 1,600 specimens) and Grace Heintz (cultivated Eucalyptus of California). Some UCLA Faculty and Alumni, including Peter H. Raven, Elmer D. Merrill, A.M. Johnson, Martin Cody, Mildred E. Mathias, Jonathan Sauer, Carl Epling, Joseph Andorfer Ewan, and Harlan Lewis, have also donated their collections to UCLA.
