Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (HAVO)

The park's herbarium collection includes over 6,000 cataloged vascular plants, lichens, bryophytes, marine algae, and seeds. The collection was initiated by Otto Degener, a former professor of botany at the University of Hawai'i, when he took over the interpretive program at the park in 1929. Degener himself contributed 25 specimens to the collection starting in 1922 and continuing until 1982.

Other early collectors contributed specimens to the herbarium as well; K.L. Fowler – 53 specimens (1937), H. Morley – 155 specimens (1934-1943), G.E. Olson – 115 specimens (1936-1940), P.H. Baldwin – 30 specimens (1941-1971) and last, but most significantly, G.O. Fagerlund and A.L. Mitchell – 700 specimens (1933-1945) with a couple of specimens in the 1970's). In subsequent years more than 3,000 vascular plants, bryophytes and mosses were added to the cataloged collection during resource management activities, inventory and monitoring, and other authorized scientific research. P.K. Higashino, T. Herat, K. Herat, and L.W. Pratt were major contributors to the collection as well as many others. The collection includes specimens of 33 endangered species.

The scope of the collection encompasses; specimens from within the boundaries of the park and immediately adjacent to the park, specimens from the island of Hawai'i which, because of the dynamic nature of the plants, may become species of concern to resource management in the future, specimens from other islands in the Hawaiian chain of interest for genetic/evolutionary research and/or of interest due to future possible migration to the park, and specimens from the greater Pacific region of interest for their historic or evolutionary ties to the flora of Hawai'i.

Collecting continues within the park by resource management staff to document occurrence of native species and their distribution patterns as well as the documentation of alien species and their distribution. Collecting is also connected with legi