Established | 1926 |
---|---|
Address | Room 119, BioSciences 3 (Old Natural Philosophy Building) The University of Melbourne |
Location | , Victoria , Australia |
Coordinates | 37°47′50″S144°57′36″E / 37.79722°S 144.96000°E Coordinates: 37°47′50″S144°57′36″E / 37.79722°S 144.96000°E |
Website | The University of Melbourne Herbarium |
The University of Melbourne Herbarium is a teaching and research herbarium within the School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne in Parkville, Victoria, Australia. Its Index Herbariorum code is MELU. [1]
The University of Melbourne Herbarium is the largest university herbarium collection in Australia, with approximately 150,000 specimens, including 3,500 fungal specimens, [2] and over 150 type specimens. [3]
Under the auspices of Professor Frederick McCoy, the first herbarium kept on the university's grounds was the National Herbarium of Victoria, from 1856 until a dedicated herbarium building was constructed in 1860 close to the present-day location of the herbarium and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. [3] [4]
Although it is generally acknowledged that there was a small preserved plant collection already on campus, the University's herbarium was officially established in 1926. [2] [5] Reverend Montague Rupp offered the non-orchid portion of his personal herbarium, of approximately 5,000 specimens, to his alma mater Trinity College. [6] The specimens were ultimately sent to the botany department, and wooden cupboards were custom-built to house the new, and significant collection. [7] In 1974, the herbarium was listed in the Index Herbariorum, and in 2014 it became a data provider with the Atlas of Living Australia. [3] [7]
Significant collections held by MELU include:
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria (Australia) by Governor Charles La Trobe in 1853, and later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria. He named many Australian plants.
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Edwin James Semmens, MBE was the Principal of the Victorian School of Forestry (VSF) at Creswick, Victoria, Australia for 23 years from 1928 to 1951, as well as local historian and prominent community leader.
The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgamation of Australia's Virtual Herbarium and NZ Virtual Herbarium. As of 12 August 2014, more than five million specimens of the 8 million and upwards specimens available from participating institutions have been databased.
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