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Oakmead Herbarium and Collections

⇒ Jasper Ridge in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun
Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

The Biomass Distribution on Earth
Science Editorial Collections are truly priceless

Floral Postcards & Annual Report 
 Current and Historic Willow Forest | Mapping Preserve Willows
Curation and fieldwork & Herbarium affiliates
Calflora Great Places | iNat 

Vascular Plants | Bryophytes | Lichens | Fleshy Fungi
Plant photo favorites | Virtual tour with our photo archive
Fading wildflowers? Disappearances and declines 

The Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve Oakmead Herbarium (JROH) conserves specimens of over 1,000 plants and lichens. The earliest vouchers date from the 1860s and were originally part of Volney Rattan's herbarium. Over the intervening 150 years numerous workers have cumulatively recorded 900 different vascular plants, 76 bryophytes, and 122 lichens. Since 2000, the herbarium group has accessioned nearly 1,000 specimens. There are, however, other and perhaps more significant measures of the richness of the Preserve's flora: Locally Rare and Uncommon plants.

Vascular plants in the herbarium represent over 10% of the terminal taxa (species, subspecies, varieties) native or naturalized in California, 440 genera in 103 families.* Specimen records are in the Consortium of California Herbaria. 

Learn more about the Oakmead Herbarium Group.

Willow riparian woodland, Searsville

Lichens, Fleshy Fungi, Plant Galls

Continuing Education 

News

Maps & Vegetation Surveys

Rare Plants and CNPS Rank 

Notes

* Native and non-native, naturalized vascular-plants known to occur—or have occurred (historical records are more than 25 years ago)—in the area of the Preserve. Almost all plants (98%) are documented by one or more herbarium vouchers in the Oakmead Herbarium or, occasionally, in other herbaria; without an herbarium voucher, the identification of a taxon may remain in doubt. In a very few cases, because of small occurrence size, a taxon is represented by digital photographs and/or a partial collection, e.g., single flower displaying diagnostic characters (DOC in the "document type" field).  There are even fewer plants listed based solely on a report by qualified botanists (REP in the "document type" field). Some vouchered (garden and agricultural escapes) and most unvouchered reports are not included on the current Jasper Ridge Plant List. Springer 1935 and Moeur 1947 surveys lack vouchers; some entries are questionable. Porter 1962 & 1971 supplement is based on vouchered plants. Dengler's 1975 and 1984 lists comprising 600+ reports are supported by 115 sheets of >100 species; additional species are mentioned in his field notebooks. A few plants with vouchers could not be determined to species by staff; in some cases expert determination has been requested, often in vain.

Photographs camera icon Photo for most plants are linked to the Vascular Plant List entries. In addition to specimen labels and maps on many JROH specimen sheets, location, flowering time, and abundance records may also be found in Calflora. Historical observations from the Field Observations Database and the JRBP Poales E-Flora are being added to Calflora.

Explore Vicky Z. Chan Oakmead Herbarium blog (click here for the virtual walk).

References relevant to the floristics of Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. The history of the herbarium is described by Jewett (2005) Documenting Plant Diversity: Jasper Ridge's Herbarium. For Stanford's rich botany heritage see Timby (1998) The Dudley Herbarium: its origin, fate, and legacy at Stanford. Jasper Ridge grassland-related research is surveyed in Stromberg, M. et al. (2007) California Grasslands Ecology and Management and Lunch (2009) Primary production at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. 

Credits: Calochortus argillosus Trail 15, Alice Cummings; Searsville Willow woodland, Anne Warren