The EKU Herbarium is taking the Commonwealth into the electronic age of plant study, but remaining focused on "the whole picture."

"As more and more of the major universities get big grants for molecular studies, there's a tendency to do away with their herbarium collections," said Dr. Ronald L. Jones, curator of the Herbarium and a professor of biological sciences. "There's some concern that we're getting too far away from the organism. It's a problem for biology students because they need to have the whole set - from molecules to organisms."

Regional schools across the nation may become the places where these collections are kept for the study of the entire organism - the whole plant, Jones said.

"Without the whole picture, we can't really understand the whole process," Jones said.
The EKU Herbarium staff also promotes the study of the whole with Index Kentuckiensis (IK), a state-of-the-art computer program that makes it easier for Kentucky's plant researchers to share and use data. With the computer expertise of Charlie Lapham in Glasgow, Eastern developed the program in 1995. The IK program enables herbaria staff to put their collections into a searchable database that can be used to conduct research, print plant distribution maps and aid in classroom instruction.

"We've made this software package free to curators around the state and in the southeast U.S.," Jones said. "From what I've been told, ours is one of the most sophisticated."

Some researchers are using IK in conjunction with the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map plant species with overlapping soil and geological data to see how the three interact with one another.

"They can use that information to predict where unusual habitats are or where they may find rare species," Jones said. "Building up Kentucky's GIS database is going to be a big use of the IK in the future."

To make Kentucky's collections more accessible and useful to researchers, Jones has submitted a statewide grant proposal for the purchase of computer equipment and hiring of staff to aid in the data-entry process.

"We want everybody to get on the same system so we can share the info with each other
on CD," Jones said.

But there would be no computer database without the thousands of dried-plant specimens themselves. Each herbarium has its own unique focus, reflecting the interests of the curators, faculty and students.

At EKU's Herbarium, located in 170 Memorial Science Building, the main geographic emphasis is on specimens found in central and eastern Kentucky. Its primary biological focus is on woody plants, the aster family, aquatic plants, grasses and sedges.

"Each specimen has hundreds of bits of data on it," Jones said. Researchers can sample and analyze the plants down to the molecular level. "The DNA can still be resurrected from leaf tissue hundreds of years old. Or they can be analyzed chemically."

Some of the more important specimens housed at EKU include sets from Lilley Cornett Woods, Maywoods Environmental and Educational Laboratory in Garrard County, Brodhead Swamp, the headwater regions of the Green River, collections from the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission, major collections from Madison, Estill and Jackson counties, and a portion of the collection of Kentucky botanist Mary Wharton.

But the Herbarium also includes a strong representation of plants from western Kentucky and the southeastern United States, as well as a good general collection from throughout the United States. And there are many rare plants, including ginseng, which is becoming increasingly rare, although not yet on the list of endangered species.

The EKU Herbarium was founded in 1974 by Dr. J. Stuart Lassetter, who curated the collection until 1981. Under Jones, the collection has grown from 9,000 to 47,000 specimens, with a recent growth rate of about 3,000 per year.

"We're shooting for 50,000 this academic year," Jones said.

Currently, the EKU collection ranks second in the state to the University of Kentucky's Department of Forestry collection totaling 55,000 plants. (UK also has a weed department collection of about 21,000 plants.) Most of Kentucky's regional universities have between 20,000 and 30,000 plant specimens, according to Jones.

Jones estimates the value of each specimen between $5 and $10 - including the time and labor spent collecting, preserving and documenting it - making the entire collection worth between $250,000 and $470,000.

Graduate students use the facility to obtain specimens for teaching seminars and to identify hundreds of species required for their master's theses, Jones said.

"I use the collection mostly for my field research," said Carey Grace, a graduate student in biology with an emphasis on applied ecology. "I also use it for plant-identification classes."
The Herbarium accepts gifts of labeled specimens. And staff members provide an identification service for those wanting to identify a plant. Visitors are welcome, preferably by appointment. Jones can be reached at (859) 622-6257 or biojones@acs.eku.edu.

Contact: Dr. Ron Jones at 859-622-6257.