Welcome to The Friesner Herbarium

You are cordially invited to the Friesner Herbarium Annual Open House, Tuesday, March 19th.

This year’s speaker will be Cátia Canteiro, Plant & Fungi Conservation Coordinator of the Global Center for Species Survival at the Indianapolis Zoo! Cátia possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience (including a lot of time in herbaria) and will deliver a very exciting and interesting presentation – “Herbaria – the past or the future?The presentation will be in Jordan Hall, Room 141, 1:10 p.m. You are welcome to stay after the presentation to speak with Cátia in the Herbarium, Gallahue Hall, Room 077.  Greenhouse tours will also be available – please meet in the Herbarium so we can send small groups to the Greenhouse since space is limited.


“Carrying the Torch: The State of Indiana Botany in 2023” by Scott Namestnik, Botanist for the Indiana Natural Heritage Data Center, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Nature Preserves – View Scott’s engaging presentation about the history of documenting Indiana flora and how do we pass that torch to the next generation of botanists?


Exploring and documenting Indiana’s Flora…

The Friesner Herbarium is a systematic collection of over 100,000 dried, pressed and preserved plant specimens. The Herbarium, third largest in the state, grew out of the personal collections of Dr. Ray C. Friesner, Professor and Chair of the Botany Department, 1920-1952. The specimens, with their carefully documented labels, comprise a reference library on historical distribution, habitats, and timing of flower and fruit production. The collection’s voucher specimens serve to verify plant identification.  Read More…

Need to identify a tree? Click Here for our easy, one page, tree identification chart.