Each sheet has a label affixed to it, providing the proper scientific name of the plant, the location and habitat where it was collected, the date of the collection, the collector’s name, and the collection number. The label information is also electronically recorded, so it is readily retrievable through a database. These specimens provide tangible documentation for the occurrence, distribution, and diversity of flowering plants, conifers, and mosses in the Southwestern desert regions of the United States, especially the Mojave Desert. The herbarium also serves as a center for research, teaching, and public service, and as a repository of potentially valuable genetic information.
History
The herbarium was founded in 1970 to assist the biologists in their studies of the vegetation and floras of both Nevada and the Southwestern deserts. With UNLV being the only four-year university located within the Mojave Desert, collectors have centered their activities largely within that geographical area, and the herbarium houses a substantial representation of the Mojave Desert flora. The collection was relocated to the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) department of Biological Sciences in 2023, but maintains its name and legacy of founder Wesley E. Niles.
Collection
The herbarium collection consists of approximately 75,000 specimens of vascular plants, mosses, and liverworts. The entire herbarium vascular plant collection is computerized and accessible in a regional data portal within the Southwest Environmental Information Network, SEINet. This allows for more effective management and retrieval of collection information, the database is especially useful in addressing the geographical and ecological distribution of plant taxa, evaluating the status and conservation of rare species, and developing local and regional plant checklists and floras.
National Resource Collection
In 1974, the Advisory Committee for the Systematic Resources in Botany (Systematic Botany Resources in America, Part I) surveyed 1,200 herbaria in the United States. Of these, 105 were designated as “National Resource Collections.” These collections were described as being, “of such importance for systematic study that their loss or inaccessibility would seriously impair our ability to carry on taxonomic research in the United States and the world.”
Notable Collectors
Included in the herbarium holdings are materials that are unique in historical and scientific interest to Nevada, the Mojave Desert, and the adjacent regions. These include the collections of:
- T. Ackerman (Desert National Wildlife Refuge)
- J.C. Beatley (Nevada Test Site)
- V. Bostick (Central and Southern Nevada)
- D. Charlet (gymnosperms of the Great Basin)
- I.W. Clokey (Spring Mountains)
- M. Kurzius, D. Schramm, P. Peterson, and C. Annabel (Death Valley, California & Nevada)
- S. Meyer (Southern Utah)
- A. Pinzl, A. Tiehm, and H. Mozingo (Central and Northern Nevada)
- W. Niles, P. Leary, J. Holland, J. Alexander, and F. Landau (Nevada, California, Arizona)
- L. Stark (mosses of the Southwestern deserts)