(4 August 1921 – 23 November 1990 ) Helen Shedd Sherwin was born in Raleigh, North Carolina to Edith Sherwin nee Dodson and Melvin Ernest Sherwin. Her father was a professor of…
Helen Shedd Sherwin
Category: UNC Herbarium
New Flora Covers Entire Southeastern United States
The southeastern United States is home to incredible biodiversity, and new plants are discovered in this area every year. Plant lists for this region, or Flora, evolve and change, making the most…
Effie Boon
(4 December 1894 – 19 December 1988) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has found a single vascular plant specimen collected by Effie Boon. As she…
Spelunking in The Caves of Chapel Hill
One of the challenges of cataloging herbarium specimens – algae, fungi, mosses, vascular plants, or fossils – is interpreting the information on the specimen’s label. Some nearby localities I have puzzled over include The Tin Can, Scott’s Hole, Sparrow’s Meadow, The Volcano, and The Caves.
Luther Stanford Beard
(21 February 1929 – 22 November 2012) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) curates over 270 vascular plant specimens collected by Luther Stanford Beard. Without doubt…
Charles Ferson Durant
(1805-1873) The pleasure experienced [in the study of algae] is ample remuneration for the patient industry required in its pursuit. The gay iridescent plants seem tempting; the shore scenery is inviting; the…
Mushrooms whose White Spores turn Bluish-Black
by Van Cotter, UNC Herbarium Associate Mushroom identification relies on many tricks of the trade. One of the fun tricks is treating white mushroom spores with iodine in the form…
Algae, Merritt’s BLT, and Literature Converge in an Herbarium Loan
As one of the largest herbaria in the southeastern United States, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) loans thousands of specimens to researchers around the world…
Charles “Chuck” Lewis McCartney, Jr.
(25 April 1947 – 11 October 2020) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has cataloged 61 vascular plant specimens collected by Charles “Chuck” Lewis McCartney, Jr. …
Rachel Milner Fell Treakle
(6 April 1856 – 14 March 1938) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has cataloged 10 fungal specimens collected by Rachel Milner Fell. NCU seems to…