The Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection is housed by the Department of Biology. The herbarium, founded in 1883, is the oldest in Colorado and serves as a regional center for botanical research. It is especially concerned with the documentation of Colorado's flora, including geographically and ecologically based natural variation. The herbarium contains 91,298 specimens of vascular plants, of which 57,500 are in the herbarium database. It is free and open to all patrons and is broadly used by members of the University and the public for plant identification.The CSU Herbarium's specimens have been the basis for three floras of Colorado--the first, published in 1906; curator Harold Harrington's 1954 Manual of the Plants of Colorado; and the most recent and comprehensive one, published by herbarium manager Jennifer Ackerfield (pictured above) in May 2015. To order a copy, click here: http://shop.brit.org/products/coloradoflora.
Gifts to the Charles Maurer Herbarium Collection currently support undergraduate and graduate student research, fieldwork, public outreach, and help to ensure the long-term vitality of the Herbarium.