DSU Regional Herbarium
Delta State University
Department of Biological Sciences

Delta State University's herbarium had its beginnings in the 1930s. Mr. Melbourne Miller was hired to conduct a floral and faunal inventory of the region through the Work Progress Administration. Although much of that original survey is lost to time, this project was the nucleus of the development of a natural history museum that is housed to this day at Delta State.

Other early workers, include the late Drs. J.S. White, Henry Jacob and Richard Caylor. We still have specimens of Richard Caylor's "Ferns of Panama" study, a collection which was unfortunately, like many collections of the time and in many institutions, neglected and largely destroyed. Our collections also hold materials from more recent studies by emeritus professor Robert A Stewart, and also specimens from various county floral studies, in particular from former students of retired Mississippi State plant taxonomist Sydney McDaniel.Finally, we have been fortunate over the years to receive duplicates of specimens from regional taxonomists including Arthur Radford, C. Ritchie Bell, Charles Bryson, Wayne Morris, John MacDonald, Richard Carter, and many others.

The “DSC” collection now houses over 13,000 specimens. Our collection is one of the larger active state university collections in Mississippi. Future projects will involve consolidation of specimens into one central location, development of a teaching collection for field botany, and updating the dendrology teaching collection.

While the primary collection focuses on native plants of Mississippi and surrounding states, we also have a substantial materials from the Carolinas and Georgia. Plans are in the works to develop several "theme" collections including a collection representing economically important and horticultural plants, and one devoted to economic "weeds" of the southeastern United States. Dr. Don Sudbrink is building a plant pathology collection.

A Griffis grant in the spring of 2005, has allowed us to purchase equipment and software through which we can develop a digital herbarium database. We’ll use the cross-platform software “FileMaker 7.0”. The database will allow us to search all label information from our collection and will include digital images of the specimens. We hope at some point to launch this database on the Internet.

Specimens are available for examination by appointment and loan. Contact information regarding availability and loans of specimens is available by contacting Dr. Sam Faulkner.

Contact Information

Dr. Samuel P. Faulkner
Department of Biological Sciences
Delta State University
Cleveland, MS 38733
Phone: (662) 846-4251
Fax: (662) 846-4798
Home email (best contact): marshdoc@aol.com

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