Inside Herbarium GZU

On this blog we will keep you updated on everything related to the Herbarium GZU of the University of Graz.

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A. Scharfetter, A. Drescher & E. Schulz: The Schulz collection – The plant world of oases in the Graz University Herbarium (GZU), 18th Austrian Botanical Conference, Klagenfurt, Austria 2018.

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During April 2018, Dr Snežana Dragićević and Mr Ilinka Ćetković from Natural History Museum of Montenegro (Podgorica, Montenegro) were guests at the Division of plant Sciences in the framework of bilateral cooperation on the project: Epiphytic organisms as bioindicators of the state of environment, with particular accent on air quality, in the cities Podgorica and Graz, with special emphasis on location on which can be expected presence of vector that can threatened human health. This project is being realized in 2017/2018, in cooperation with Dr. Christian Berg (Austrian coordinator), Dr. Silke Werth and Rita Suendhofer. Dr Dragićević and Mr Ćetković were visited our Herbarium and studied bryophyte from Montenegro, which were collected by Glowacki, Loitlesberger, Baumgartner, Latzel, Mayrhofer, Poelt, Touw and other researchers.

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26. 2. –  1. 3. 2018:

Juri Nascimbene (University of Bologna, Italy) is researching into lichen community patterns in high elevation habitats, currently in Majella National Park in the Abruzzo. He used our lichen collection for comparison of his collected material with herbarium specimens.

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26. 2. –  1. 3. 2018:

During his visit Gabriele Gheza (University of Pavia, Italy) dived into the world of Cladonias to make comparative studies in our lichen collection. By the way: This guy has become totally thrilled by cup lichens and dedicated an own blog to this fascinating creatures: https://cladoniarium.wordpress.com/

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12. –  24. 11. 2017:

Jana Kocourková and Kerry Knudsen (Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague) relax when making herbarium studies where they can focus on lichens an lichenicolous fungi.

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3. 11. 2017:

Edit Farkas (1st photo, mid) and her working group (1st photo, left: Katalin Veres, right: Dora Smahajcsik. 2nd photo: Nora Varga; MTA Centre for Ecological research, Hungarian Academy of Science) also combined their stay in Graz for the workshop with a visit in GZU to look for additional records of lichens and lichenicolous fungi for a revision of the lichen flora of Hungary.

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30. 10. – 3. 11. 2017:

Several attendees of the ‘Lichen Genomics Workshop II’ organized at the Institute for Plant Science in Graz took the opportunity to spend some time in our herbarium. Alice Gerlach (University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and Botanical Garden Geneva, Switzerland) working on Usnea specimens from Brazil and other parts of South America could determine several of the mass of ‘nameless’ specimens. Thank you Alice!

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25. 10. – 6. 11. 2017:

Keeping an eye on our Umbilicariaceae, Evgeny A. Davydov (Altai State University, Barnaul, Russia) got aware of a piano at the moment kept in our top floor … and filled the air with music for a while.

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19. 10. 2017:

On his tour to our Botanical Garden for the international garden voucher program  "GGI-Gardens" (http://ggi.si.edu/ggi-gardens) Morgan Gostel, Ph.D. (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.) made a diversion to GZU to work on Schefflera (Araliaceae), Commiphora (Burseraceae), and African Vernonieae (Asteraceae).

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The herbarium – a rich and important source for Mag. Gerwin Heber who works in nature conservation for the Styrian government. In search of distribution data of endangered plant species, he frequently screens the geographical and ecological information provided on the specimen labels. Our rich collections document and display distribution patterns in space and time.

The historical specimens of Pseudolysimachion spicatum, for instance, testify the extinction of this species in nearly all documented localities in Styria, except one.

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16. 06. – 16. 08. 2017:

Dr. Juan Manuel Rodriguez (University of Córdoba, Argentina) compares the lichen flora of Argentinian mountains and the Alps, paying particular attention to crustose Physciaceae.

A good opportunity for GZU and the specimens Prof. Poelt brought back from his excursion to Tierra del Fuego in the 1980s to benefit from Juan’s expertise!

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28. 6. – 27. 12. 2017:

For his Ph.D. thesis on the moss flora of Montenegro Branko Antić (University of Crna Gora, Podgorica, Montenegro) is consulting the moss collection in GZU and Christian Berg‘s expertise in determination of bryophytes.

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3. 5. 2017:

Pedro Joel Silva Filho (University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) visited GZU for one certain historical type specimen which is crucial for his taxonomic survey on Rhynchospora (Cyperaceae). Our most important collections of Cyperaceae - from all over the world – date back to the days of Eduard Palla (1864 – 1922), a distinguished specialist in this family.

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6. – 7. 4. 2017:

Dr. Thomas F. Daniel (California Academy of Sciences) delving into the Acanthaceae collection for his monographic project on this large family.

GZU houses a considerable portion of the Acanthaceae collection of Nees ab Esenbeck. More than 1500 from these over 2200 historical specimens are types.

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25. 1. 2017:

Educational outreach: lecturer Dr. Peter Bilovitz (3rd from left) and three students of the seminar “Biodiversity of Plants” on a guided tour through GZU – a virtual journey from the wild to the herbarium fascicle, from random collection to type specimen.

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A. Scharfetter & A. Drescher: Collections from the Habsburg Monarchy – the historical heart of the University Herbarium of Graz (GZU), 17th  Meeting of Austrian Botanists, Vienna, Austria 2016.

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15. – 24. August 2016

Dr Teodor T. Denchev, mycologist at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia), in search of new records of smut fungi on Cyperaceae and Caryophyllaceae – ending up with a neat pile containing more than the “usual suspects” of the genus Anthracoidea on Carex.

The second photo shows the sori of Anthracoidea sempervirentis.