Rocky Mountain Herbarium
Mission & Vision
The mission of the Rocky Mountain Herbarium is to discover and disseminate botanical knowledge, emphasizing the identification, taxonomy and distribution of plant and fungal taxa present in the Rocky Mountain region.
Vision: To enhance scholarship about, and inform stewardship of, the region’s biodiversity, by making information about Rocky Mountain plant species available to researchers, land managers, students, and interested citizens.
Rocky Mountain Herbarium Strategic Plan (PDF) ➞
The Rocky Mountain Herbarium, which includes the U.S. Forest Service National Herbarium and the W.G. Solheim Mycological Herbarium, collectively contains more than one million specimens and an additional 300,000 that await mounting. The Herbarium ranks 15th in the nation of 641 herbaria, 75th in the world of 2,962 herbaria.
Aven Nelson carrying his vasculum of plant specimens for pressing, and several of his students in a photo taken in 1937. Image: American Heritage Center.