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The Claude E.
Phillips Herbarium is a botanical resource center located at Delaware State
University in Dover, Delaware. The Herbarium houses an extensive
collection of pressed and dried plant specimens, and also functions as an
active center for education and research on the world’s botanical
diversity. In the Claude E.
Phillips Herbarium, plant specimens are pressed, mounted on archival paper,
and stored in special cases in a climate-controlled environment. With
about 130,000 specimens of flowering plants, gymnosperms, ferns, mosses,
algae, and lichens, the Claude E. Phillips Herbarium is the largest herbarium
at a Historically Black College or University and ranks about 87 out of 525
herbaria in the U.S. Specimens date back to 1799, with worldwide
representation. Scientific books, journals, and photographs round out
the collections.
Scientists, gardeners, educators, students, physicians, and lawyers regularly
consult these holdings for identification and education. The herbarium
is an indispensable tool for providing detailed data on habitats, mapping
distribution of plants, studying evolutionary trends and genetic variations,
and documenting plant research in the form of voucher specimens. For
example, the Claude E. Phillips Herbarium documents the rare, threatened, and
endangered flora and habitats of the DelMarVa Peninsula. The Claude
E. Phillips Herbarium includes important accessions from Catholic University,
Colorado College, and many private collectors, such as R.M. Austin, H.R.
Baker, W.M. Canby, A. Commons, N.H. Dill, F.M. Jones, H. O’Neill, J.P. Otis,
J.T. Pennypacker, C.E. Phillips, P.J.D. Redmond, A.V. Smith, W.S. Taber, E.
Tatnall, R.R. Tatnall, and I.F. Tidestrom.
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