UNC-CHAPEL HILL, DUKE TO COMBINE HERBARIA, CREATING THE THIRD-LARGEST UNIVERSITY PLANT COLLECTION IN THE UNITED STATES

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Sept. 5 -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued the following news release:

UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University will unite their herbaria under the management of the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. Herbaria are collections of preserved plant specimens that serve as irreplaceable scientific archives and enable researchers to study biodiversity, long-term climate shifts, invasive species and other changes in plant life across generations.

Together the collection will comprise about 1.7 million specimens, making it the third-largest university herbarium in the country after Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, and the largest in the southeastern United States.

Th...