Fungal Type Specimens
The Bessey Herbarium, in the University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, has about 50,000 fungal specimens, including an estimated 2,100 type specimens. Type specimens are used in the descriptions of new species and therefore are of special importance.
The information on the specimen packets is not yet electronically retrievable. In the summer of 2006, a project was initiated to create a database of information about the type specimens. Brittany Heidtbrink, a University of Nebraska–Lincoln senior, entered the information for about half of the specimens, and when the project is finished the information will be a web-searchable index, including images of the specimen labels.
About half of the type specimens were obtained as exsiccatae (specimens distributed from study centers to subscribers). Some specimens are true holotypes (the actual specimens used to first describe the species), and at least 44 were collected in Nebraska and described at the University of Nebraska; other specimens represent different categories of type specimens. Most were collected in the late 1800s and early 1900s; the earliest collection found so far was made in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1864. All continents except Australia and Antarctica are represented, as are more than 30 countries.
Nebraskans Frederic and Edith Schwartz Clements were active in mycology in the late 1800s and early 1900s, as were Roscoe Pound, Charles E. Bessey, and Bessey’s son, Ernst. So far, we have databased type specimens of more than 130 species that these workers collected and described as new to science. (Ernst Bessey later became a prominent mycologist and in 1935 published the first American textbook of mycology.)
Not long into data-entry, Heidtbrink discovered specimens collected by renowned American scientist and inventor George Washington Carver (some of the Carver specimen labels can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail image). She wrote a short article outlining her discovery for the newsletter of the Friends of the State Museum. Carver had a special talent for mycology, especially for finding rare or new species. A brief summary of his work in mycology can be found at a New York Botanical Garden website.
While the State Museum currently does not have a mycologist on staff, the specimens are well cared for. In 1992, former botany curator Margaret Bolick and former collection manager Charles Messenger received a large grant to better maintain the herbarium’s collections. That work preserved the fungal specimens in uniform, archival packets, preserved original labels from old packets, and organized the collection alphabetically for easier retrieval and data-entry.
