Friday, October 23, 2009

Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium (CUP)


My visit to the Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium (CUP) in June of 2009 was funded with a travel grant award distributed by the Penn State plant pathology department. The CUP facility had just celebrated its first year in its current location during this visit. The location was previously used for poultry research and was renovated to accommodate this herbarium. CUP has been described as the fourth or fifth largest mycological herbarium in North America. It houses approximately 400, 000 fungi and plant disease specimens, including over 7,000 types specimens and 60,000 historical photographs. CUP Curator, Robert Dirig, gave me an extensive tour of the facility. The knowledge gained during this brief visit will certainly be reflected in the proper preservation of specimens and vouchers collected during my research project in the Hartley Wood. The image to the right shows Robert inspecting the stability of a voucher packet from a collection.

1 comment: