Visitation
The herbarium is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday – Friday. However, because we may be in the field, elsewhere on campus, or interacting with fellow staff of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, we highly recommend that you call 919-962-6931 several days in advance to let us know of your plans to visit.
Location: The University of North Carolina at Herbarium (NCU) is located in Coker Hall (120 South Road) on the main campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Click here to get directions to Coker Hall.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU)
CB #3280 Coker Hall
120 South Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280, U.S.A.
Telephone: +1 919-962-6931.
Parking: Please be aware that parking on campus is highly regulated year-round, and there is little metered parking near the Herbarium. An on campus parking permit is available for official Herbarium visitors to use by calling 919-962-6931 several days prior to your visit to reserve the permit.
Upon Arrival: Please check with one of the Herbarium staff for orientation. We strongly suggest that you make an appointment ahead of time to ensure that a staff member can meet you upon your arrival. Please sign the guest book. No smoking, food, or beverages are permitted inside the collections area.
Collection Locations: Herbarium cases containing the vascular collections are spread among three floors and several rooms of Coker Hall. Cases located in the hallways are kept locked; a master key is available from herbarium staff. Families are arranged in the Englerian sequence. Within each family, the genera are sorted alphabetically. Each genus is sorted into geographical regions in color-coded folders. Within each geographic region, the species are sorted alphabetically. Unidentified specimens are filed at the end of each category.
General Use of the Collection: Visitors are welcome to use the collections as long as they abide by these general use guidelines:
- Please close herbarium cases when not in use.
- Keep specimen folders horizontal when removing them from the cases. Keep herbarium sheets right side up; do not turn them over like pages in a book.
- Material such as pollen, leaves, and wood must not be removed from herbarium specimens without prior written consent; refer to the Destructive Sampling Policy below for details. Dissections or loose plant fragments should be put into packets attached to the sheet. Additional packets are available from the staff.
- Visiting specialists are encouraged to annotate specimens using permanent ink on annotation labels. Pens and labels are available from the herbarium staff. Please provide the name of the investigator and date of annotation. Clip annotation labels to packets or sheets and the staff will glue them. Alternatively, leave the determinations on the top of the stack of specimens and the staff will make and attach the annotation labels.
- Specimens that you wish to have sent on loan should be set aside and labeled with your name and institutional address. A formal written request for the loan must be received from the curator of your herbarium before the loan will be sent.
- In order to control herbarium pests, incoming specimens to the Vascular Herbarium are frozen for 48 hours or more. Users of the collection who bring specimens in with them are strongly urged to bring in material treated to ensure that it is free of pests or to contact herbarium staff ahead of time so we can freeze the collections and make them available for use upon arrival. If this is not possible, please contact a member of the herbarium staff and we will make other arrangements.
- A collection of botanical references is maintained in the main herbarium area. Please do not remove these books without notifying staff. Additional references are available from the Science Annex located about half a block away.
