Biology Department

Reed College Herbarium (REED)

The Reed College Biology Department is home to an herbarium collection of approximately 10,000 specimens of vascular and non-vascular plants.  The herbarium is listed in Index Herbariorum and is assigned the herbarium code REED. The majority of the collection has been digitally imaged, and both the specimen images and label data have been entered into the database maintained by the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria.  The Reed collection can be viewed using the search function at the PNW Consortium's website.  In 2016, the Reed data that are hosted by the PNW Consortium were added to the iDigBio (Integrated Digitized Biocollections) database.

The herbarium includes an older collection that predates the establishment of Reed College in 1911, voucher specimens associated with the Reed College Senior Theses that involved botanical research, reference collections for The Nature Conservancy's preserves in the Sandy River Gorge and at Cascade Head, and a diverse collection of Umbelliferae made by Dr. Bert Brehm (Emeritus faculty).  Additional noteworthy collections are described in the documents linked below by Ornduff (Reed '53) and Marttala (Reed '70).

Abronia millifera
Abronia mellifera Douglas ex Hook.,
white sand verbena,
collected in 1880 near Celilo, OR

Several documents describe the history of the herbarium and the collectors who have contributed to the collection:

Inquiries about the herbarium, visitation, and loans should be sent to Dr. Keith Karoly (Biology Dept.) who is the current director of the herbarium.

Other PNW institutions with herbaria include: