University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin State Herbarium (WIS)

The Wisconsin State Herbarium (WIS), formerly known as the University of Wisconsin-Madison Herbarium, was founded in 1849, and is a scientific collection of pressed, dried, labeled, and classified plants and fungi. It also preserves notes, illustrations, and other material about plants, and it maintains its own valuable Herbarium Library. The collection of more than 1.2 million specimens is of regional, national, and international importance. Approximately one-fourth of its vascular plant specimens are from Wisconsin, all of which have been databased and are searchable online. In addition, most of the world's floras are well represented, and the holdings from certain areas such as the Upper Midwest, eastern North America, western Mexico, and the Arctic (primarily lichens) are widely recognized as resources of global significance. The herbarium occupies two floors of the east wing of historic Birge Hall at the top of Bascom Hill on the UW-Madison campus. In addition to its specimen holdings, visitors to WIS have access to high-quality microscopes, an extensive library of books, reprints and maps, computer workstations, and internet connections for personal computers. WIS serves as the state of Wisconsin's official repository of plant specimen vouchers, and is actively engaged in educating students and sharing our passion for plants with the public. The faculty, staff, and students associated with the herbarium are engaged in a variety of local, regional, national, and international efforts to document, showcase, and protect plant diversity.

Contacts: Kenneth M. Cameron, kmcameron@wisc.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 14 April 2023
IPT / DwC-A Source:
Digital Metadata: EML File
Address:
Wisconsin State Herbarium
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Department of Botany, Birge Hall
430 Lincoln Dr.
Madison, WI   53706
USA
608-262-2792
Collection Statistics
  • 416,506 specimen records
  • 282,166 (68%) georeferenced
  • 354,466 (85%) with images (550,330 total images)
  • 404,890 (97%) identified to species
  • 361 families
  • 3,382 genera
  • 17,203 species
  • 20,147 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
Geographic Distribution
Click on the specimen record counts within the parenthesis to return the records for that term