University of Connecticut (CONN)

The George Safford Torrey Herbarium (CONN) supports botanical research in all disciplines including systematics, taxonomy, biodiversity, ecology, ethnobotany, palaeobotany, evolution and education. The herbarium combines significant palaeobotanical, bryological, lichenological, mycological, phycological and vascular plants totaling over 160,000 specimens, all housed in a fully modern, state-of-the-art facility. We are in the process of databasing our phycology collections. Over 2000 specimens have been entered to date. All specimens will eventually be imaged and made available on this site. Sample images are available for the genus Porphyra. The specimens were discovered in various parts of the Torrey Life Sciences Building during the move to the new combined collections facility. The majority of the collection dates from the latter part of the nineteenth century, starting around the mid 1870’s and is mostly from New England. Specimens range from those collected by eminent phycologists such as Frank Shipley Collins and Isaac Holden to other UConn collectors such as Andrew E. Wheeler, Joanna Page, George Safford Torrey and Frank Trainor. New collections are being added by students from the Biology of Algae course. A small minority of specimens are from Australia, Bahamas, California, Florida and Puerto Rico. Also included are exsiccatae separates from Algae Boreali-Americanae and the Phycotheca Boreali-Americana. Collins, Holden, and Setchell. With an active phycology faculty CONN is interested in exchanging duplicates to add to our collections. Comments on the data and requests to loan the specimens or receive archived high resolution images are welcome.
Contacts: Dr. Sarah Taylor, Collections Manager, sarah.taylor@uconn.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Live Data managed directly within data portal
Global Unique Identifier: 30fec3c0-86a4-410e-93f2-7a17ef167c74
Digital Metadata: EML File
Collection Statistics
  • 4,167 specimen records
  • 4,105 (99%) georeferenced
  • 3,875 (93%) with images (3,877 total images)
  • 3,477 (83%) identified to species
  • 135 families
  • 240 genera
  • 543 species
  • 606 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics