Plants, fungi and more

It’s just a large room and a few offices inside of the Coker Life Sciences Building, and it appears to be nothing more than rows and rows of large metal lockers. However, if you break the seal of one of the airtight lockers, inside are hundreds of dried plants organized alphabetically by plant family name, then genus and species.

It’s USC’s A.C. Moore Herbarium, home to more than 100,000 specimens of dried plants and fungi.

“This is a long-term part of our University that just doesn’t have a lot of attention,” said Dr. John Nelson, the curator of the herbarium.

Bumper stickers around campus promote the herbarium, but organizers say not many students know what it’s all about.

So what’s the point of the herbarium?

“It’s a taxonomic record and a description of common types of plants around the state,” said Herrick Brown, the assistant curator. “It preserves the information indefinitely and is open for researchers to come in and study.”

The herbarium also provides plant identification services for anyone who may be wondering what exactly they’ve found. Last year alone, they identified over 600 plant species. There is an online database of all of the species within the collection.

“Anyone can send us a plant specimen and we’ll identify it,” Cooper said. A plant that is intact, as well as any other information that you have, such as surrounding shrubbery and your location, is helpful in classifying it.

The plant identification service also helps the herbarium to stay abreast to potentially invasive species. As shown by the kudzu covering much of the south, invasive species spread quickly and can do great damage to local environments. If caught early through programs like Early Detection and Rapid Response, which works with the herbarium, the problem can be lessened or solved.

The herbarium offers classes on how to botanize, a forgotten hobby from the mid-1800s. The class, seen wandering around campus carrying a flag, is taught by Dr. Nelson and works with the herbarium. Cooper is also working with schools to help integrate information about plants into the curriculum to help meet state standards, as well as expose children to the outdoors.

The herbarium was started in the early 1900s by its namesake, A.C. Moore.
Inside it, each plant is kept in a color-coded folder according to where it came from. On a 12” by 18” piece of paper, the pressed plant is carefully glued on and affixed with a label, giving key identifying information.

“It’s almost like a plant museum,” said Herrick Brown, the assistant curator.
Some of the species within the collection date back to the Civil War. Chanda Cooper, the collections manager, is working to restore the plants cataloged in the antebellum period, and she has found some quirky subjects along the way

”One of the labels had a child’s handwriting practicing the word ‘and’ over and over again on it,” Cooper said.

If preserved correctly, the plants will last indefinitely.

“This is one of the most important natural history collections in South Carolina,” Dr. Nelson said. “The state has a long tradition of people studying botany and plant life, and our herbarium is a reflection of that tradition.”

Cooper encourages everyone: “Go forth and botanize.”