Michigan State University (MSC)

The MSU Herbarium was founded in 1863 with the donation of a large collection of plants from Michigan and the eastern U.S. Today, we remain focused on plant and fungal diversity from Michigan, but the collection is also rich in plants from Mexico and southeast Asia, and lichens from the Caribbean and the subantarctic region. With over half a million specimens, the MSU Herbarium is among the 50 largest herbaria in the United States, whereas the lichen collection, with 120,000 accessioned collections, is among the 10 largest in North America and, because of its geographical scope, of international importance.
Contacts: Alan Prather, alan@msu.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 1 March 2024
IPT / DwC-A Source:
Digital Metadata: EML File
Cite this collection:
Michigan State University. Occurrence dataset (ID: 113da5dd-b927-4539-b205-5333995e93e5) accessed via the PteridoPortal Portal, /portal, 2024-03-19).
Collection Statistics
  • 16,550 specimen records
  • 8,226 (50%) georeferenced
  • 16,469 (100%) with images (32,580 total images)
  • 15,924 (96%) identified to species
  • 50 families
  • 291 genera
  • 2,336 species
  • 2,496 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics