blue flowers

Botany

Botany conducts research, research training and graduate education on the world’s plants — their global diversity, evolution, geography, genomic, morphology, conservation, ecology and behavior.

KU Botany

#1
​Largest collection of Great Plains plant specimens
#1
Largest collection of Great Plains lichen specimens
#16
Sixteenth largest lichen collection in North America
#36
Thirty-sixth largest herbarium in the United States

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Research

Botany staff engage in specimen-based research using interdisciplinary approaches, field-and lab-based studies, and a range of research tools to examine questions in plant systematics, evolutionary biology, plant biogeography, ecology, conservation biology and natural resource management.

Plant with white puffball like blooms and dark greenery. Species is Cephalanthus occidentalis

Collections

The McGregor Herbarium houses approximately 454,000 specimens accumulated by Botany staff during the past 150 years. The collection ranks in the top 5% of U.S. herbaria in the number of accessioned specimens. Vascular plant holdings are rich in Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Fabaceae, Juncaceae and Poaceae.

Pressed and dried plant specimen on paper with a bar code on bottom left and detailed plant information on right