Herbarium collections

Locations
The collections are housed at two different locations:

Department of Plant Sciences, Systematic Botany and Geobotany
Holteigasse 6, 8010 Graz/Austria
Mosses, lichens and lichenicolous fungi, seed-fruit collection, wood collection, ethnobotanical collection, palaeobotanical collection.

Andritz branch
Weinzöttlstraße 16, 8045 Graz/Austria
Algae, fungi, vascular plants

Borrowing requests by e-mail to the responsible curators or by letter to the following address:
To the curator of the Herbarium GZU, Department of Plant Sciences, Holteigasse 6, 8010 Graz/Austria

Visitor regulations
Visits to the collections are only possible after prior written registration with the responsible curator, by e-mail or letter.

Loans
In principle, loans are only sent to public institutions with natural science collections and appropriately trained, responsible staff. The borrowing institution must have suitable facilities for the adequate storage of herbarium material, which also prevent pest infestation and other damage.
In addition to the desired taxa, the loan request should also include the name of the person working on the request, the supervisor and a working title.

As a matter of principle, type and historical specimens will not be loaned. The GZU herbarium reserves the right to refuse loan requests due to excessive costs or high risk (e.g. extinct species)

The maximum loan period is 12 months. If the material is required for longer, a written request for extension must be made before the loan period expires. Proper receipt of the consignment must be confirmed on the enclosed duplicate of the loan documents. The material must be returned in the original envelopes and accompanied by the required documents (CITES documentation, parcel label, if applicable).

The material may not be passed on to or taken to another institution without the prior contact and written consent of the respective curator.

Any changes to the voucher material or labels as well as repair work are prohibited. Damage must be reported immediately to the GZU herbarium in writing.

Please enclose a revision slip with each revised herbarium sheet, but do not stick it on.

Borrowed material may only be used for scientific purposes.

The material used must be cited in publications. Please cite the barcode number together with the preceding acronym (e.g.: GZU000123456) or, if this is missing, the collection number or personal herbarium number. If this is also missing, please cite enough of the label text so that the document can be clearly assigned. The internal database ID (DigiBota ID) and the inventory number of the specimen (e.g.: Herbarium GZU Inv. No. 135; or GZU Inv. No. 89-2005) are not suitable for citation.

A special print or pdf-file of publications containing analysed material from the GZU herbarium must be sent to the herbarium.

Photographing the material is permitted. In the case of publication of the photograph(s), the GZU herbarium of the Karl-Franzens-University must be explicitly cited as the source. A copy or a pdf-file of the publication and the photos must be sent to the Herbarium GZU.

Destructive sampling
Destructive examination methods are generally prohibited.
Exceptions require the written consent of the curator or his authorised representative.
Unused fragments are the property of the GZU herbarium and must be returned encapsulated and labelled.
If in the course of processing specimens (e.g.: Pollen preparations, anatomical sections, collodion skins, removed TLC specimen etc.) are made in the course of processing, the original or a sufficiently labelled duplicate/photo with sufficient resolution must be returned together with the voucher.
In the case of multiple requests for individual specimens, only one application is usually approved and all other applicants are informed in order to enable possible co-operation. A special print or pdf-file of publications containing analysed material from the GZU herbarium must be sent to the herbarium.
Under no circumstances may parts of type material or historical collection material be removed.

About the collections of the GZU
The herbarium in the Department of Plant Sciences of the Karl-Franzens-University (official abbreviation: GZU) is one of the most important botanical collections in Europe with more than 1,000,000 specimens. The lichen herbarium at GZU, founded by Prof Dr Josef Poelt, is of particular importance worldwide.
Biodiversity research and documentation obligations: Like every natural science, botany is subject to the strict criteria of repeatability and reproducibility of knowledge processes. Just as every physiological or biochemical experiment must be so well documented that it can be repeated at any time, every systematic botanical or geobotanical study must also be reproducible at any time by means of appropriately preserved documents. Even for the simple identification of a single plant find using standard literature, documentation in the form of a herbarium voucher can be useful.

The international importance of the GZU herbarium is therefore not only due to the total number of herbarium specimens or type specimens, but also to the intensity with which the staff and students of the institute use the herbarium for their work, and above all to the volume of international loans and the frequency of visitors. Biodiversity research and molecular biological methodology: Even a dried plant on a herbarium sheet still has its genetic code stored. Recent findings using molecular biology methods in particular have shown that biodiversity research is not meaningful without current and historical herbarium material from different parts of the distribution area (range) of a species:

The GZU herbarium in figures:

Number of herbarium specimens > 1,000,000

Number of type specimens: approx. 10,000

Average growth rate: approx. 10,000 specimens/year

Average borrowing rate: 4000-5000 specimens/year

Average exchange rate: 2000 documents/year

Type specimens
However, the international regulations governing the valid description and naming of newly discovered species are particularly strict. The author of a new species is obliged, without exception, to name type specimens of the new species and the place of deposit of these type specimens when publishing. The first description is based on these herbarium specimens, and the name of the new species therefore remains forever linked to the type specimens deposited. Violations of this documentation obligation according to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICN, formerly ICBN) invalidate the published names and descriptions. Approximately 10,000 type specimens are currently stored in GZU.

Digitisation
Since 2003, work has been underway to digitise the entire collection, and since 2006 the herbarium has participated in several national and international digitisation projects. (GBIF, GBIF-Austria, Virtual Herbaria Austria, GPI and Europeana).

Herbaria as cultural assets: In view of the long tradition of biodiversity research in Europe, it is almost self-evident that the significance of herbaria has also acquired an ever deeper historical dimension in the course of their development. Just like libraries, herbaria are irreplaceable cultural assets. Herbarium specimens of plants from very specific habitats from historical times bear witness not so much to changes in the general climate, but much more to the countless interventions of man in his environment.

Herbarium specimens from older collections can even be important as purely historical source documents, e.g. for research into the life and work of important botanists and/or their patrons.

Interesting links
Virtual Herbaria Austria
GBIF
GBIF-Austria
Europeana

Collections/Curators

Dr Peter BILOVITZ (Curator, e-mail: pe.bilovitz(at)uni-graz.at)

Astrid SCHARFETTER (herbarium manager, e-mail: as.scharfetter(at)uni-graz.at)

Vascular plants (= ferns and seed plants) (~ 850,000 specimens)
Fungi and myxomycetes (~ 110,000 specimens)
Palaeobotanical collection (~ 12,000 specimens), permanently supported by the Department of Geology and Palaeontology of the Natural History Museum Vienna
Algae and cyanobacteria (~ 3.800 specimens)
Seed and fruit collection (~ 500 objects/specimens)
Wood collection (~ 200 objects)
Ethnobotanical collection (~ 100 objects)
Dr Walter OBERMAYER (curator, e-mail: walter.obermayer(at)uni-graz.at)

Lichens and lichenicolous fungi (~ 190,000 specimens)
Mosses (~ 17,000 specimens)

Inside Herbarium GZU

Libraries of the Department of Plant Sciences Systematic Botany & Geobotany and Plant Physiology

The libraries of the Department of Plant Sciences Systematic Botany & Geobotany and Plant Physiology are located in two different buildings (Holteigasse 6 and Schubertstraße 51). You can find the responsible contact persons below under "Contact".

Use of the library in the Systematic Botany & Geobotany section (= "Botany", Holteigasse 6) and borrowing outside the library is currently only possible by appointment (by telephone or e-mail).

External link to garden-relevant literature