Chrysler Herbarium at Rutgers University

05/12/2026

We are sad to let you know that the great New Jersey botanist Ted Gordon has passed away. He was an expert on New Jersey plants and Pine Barren history.
Ted was a graduate from Rutgers, taught some courses here, but is most well-known for his work on protecting endangered plants in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. It is a great loss for botany in New Jersey.

More information here:

Thank you to Terry Schmidt for this information and the photo. It is with saddened hearts that the family of...

04/24/2026

Dear friends - if you want to support little university herbarium with a big internship program and big local impact, here is your chance.

Help Chrysler Herbarium to raise funds for our Herbarium Army! We have set a goal this year and we’d love your help in reaching it.

Our internship program provides students with training in museum collections, botany, and management of invaluable specimens and their scientific data. We are raising funds so we can provide more paid positions for our students. Over 225 students have been interns so far, and this fall we start a new certificate program in Biodiversity Collections at Rutgers. We are also the home of the annual Personal Bioblitz, over 200 000 specimens of plants, fungi, and algae, and we collaborate with scientists and nature conservation organizations in New Jersey and beyond.

You can donate here, any size donation is very much appreciated! : https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/chrysler.../7045.html

Happy Green Friday!
Lena & Megan
______________________________________________________
Chrysler Herbarium (CHRB)
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
14 College Farm Road
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8551

Donate to the Chrysler Herbarium to support the creation, sharing, and application of knowledge at Rutgers.

03/30/2026

Interested in fungi? Rutgers students are encouraged to apply for this scholarship to attend a New Jersey Mycological Association foray this May 2026!

12/02/2025

As the semester nears an end, we would like to finish off this birthday series with Psilotum nudum (L.) P.Beauv. This 100 year old specimen was collected in November 1925 by Otto Degener.

Read below for more information about the plant and its historical/cultural significance!

🔎 This ancient plant is considered a “living fossil” as its appearance closely resembles some of the earliest known vascular plant fossils from the Devonian period (around 400 million years ago).

🔎 Found in both tropical and nontropical regions, this plant is well known for its lack of true roots, leaves, and flowers. It is also known for its unique “whisk fern” appearance, its traditional uses in ethnobotany, and its distinctive yellow sporangia, which have led to its use in cultural practices and as a medicinal plant in various cultures.

🔎 Historically and culturally, it has played a role in traditional Hawaiian childhood games. In Hawaii, the plant (known locally as moa) was used by children in a game called “moa nahele” (chicken vegetation). In this game, opposing players would interlock branches and pull them apart until one branch broke. The winner would then crow like a rooster.

🔎 Other Uses: The spores of P. nudum were traditionally used as a talcum powder to prevent chafing and medicinally as a purge. The plant is also used for making traditional Hawaiian leis and was historically used to make small brooms (hence the common name “whisk fern”). 

🌟 Overall, this plant has been prevalent throughout history, culture, and medicine. It plays a huge role in medicine used today as well as Hawaiian traditions.

Credits:
📸 Photo by Blair Young (CC-BY-4.0, via GBIF
https://www.gbif.org/species/2688176)

📸 Photo by Damien Wallace (CC-BY-4.0, via GBIF
https://www.gbif.org/species/2688176)

10/26/2025

A giant thank you to all of you that participated in and made our 100-year celebration possible! From the Herbarium Army interns, the speakers from near and far, the attendees, all of you who donated to our funds for more future Herbarium Army interns and their work, the gorgeous weather, Rutgers Dining Services, Facilities who took care of things you might not have seen, and SEBS leadership and staff. The symposium waa filled the room. Here are just a few photos from the event and field trips.

10/12/2025

We are turning 100! Go to our website to read more about our special 100-year jubilee symposium on Friday 24 October, and with Open House and Jubilee dinner. There will be a fieldtrip to Rutgers campus forests on Saturday 25 October too.

https://herbarium.rutgers.edu/

10/12/2025

Double, double toil and trouble! 🧹🧙‍♀️🐈‍⬛

For October’s 1925 edition of “A Trip to the Past”, we are summoning...Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana L.)! 🔮✨

This 100-year old specimen was collected by Otway H. Brown in the Rocky woods of Wilmington, Delaware, on October 12, 1925 (yep—exactly a century ago today)! 👻🎃

Now here’s the spooky twist: Otway notably died on Halloween 1946! But don’t worry, the specimen continues to live on in the Chrysler Herbarium, keeping a little piece of history, and a little mystery, alive! 🪦🧟‍♂️

Lastly, this plant is well known for its “healing” properties, as it can be used topically for many skin conditions like bruises and can be consumed for sore throats and diarrhea. Now isn’t that a fitting ingredient for a witch’s cauldron. 🧪🌿

🔎For more information, visit:
https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/2595756133

📸© Photo by Judy Preston (CC-BY-NC 4.0, via Long Island Sound Partnership https://lispartnership.org/2024/11/flora-on-the-sound)
🖼️© Drawing by Linnaea Mallette (CC0, via PublicDomainPictures.Net https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=618580&picture=vintage-halloween-witch-art-print)

🧟‍♀️☠️👻🕸️🕷️🦇🎃

09/25/2025

Nature’s Hot Cheetos 🍃🔥 straight from the bogs!

As the herbarium’s 100-Year Jubilee nears, let’s look back at the beginning of our journey and celebrate the specimens that turn 💯 this year 🎂🎉

🔎 Collected by Mintin Asbury Chrysler, himself, the Polygala lutea L. is well known for its Cheeto-like shape and color, candy-flavored roots used in many Native American traditional medicine, and unique relationship with ants for seed dispersal.

🔎 For more information, visit: https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/2595760682

📸© Photo by Richard and Teresa Ware (CC-BY-NC 4.0, via NameThatPlant.net http://www.namethatplant.net/plantdetail.shtml?plant=1952)

02/20/2024

The Flora of the Southeastern United States that Alan Weakley and the apps and tools that go with it also cover New Jersey, so I highly recommend this talk. It is $20-25 to register and you can watch the talk later, it will be recorded. We in the Chrysler Herbarium collaborate in this project. If you haven't checked out the FloraQuest App then we suggest you do too. Great for plant ID in the field.

In our 2024 Native Plant Symposium, our speakers will help you build a toolkit of purposeful choices and tools that help you in designed landscapes and when restoring habitat in the wild with native plants.

11/01/2023

Nature Journaling is an OTS course for advanced students, researchers, and anyone who wants to learn how to record nature observations through careful study, illustration, and written annotations. Participants in this 7-day course will develop skills and techniques to improve their observation abilities in the stunning environment of the La Selva Research Station, guided by professional instructors. Our instructors are active nature journalers and artists who depict natural phenomena and organisms. This is not photography nor digital art, and you don’t need to have known how to draw in the past.

The course will be at La Selva Research Station (January 6-12, 2024) in a lowland rain forest in Costa Rica with a wonderful variety of habitats and organisms. The deadline for applications is October 22, 2023. For more information or to apply online, go to https://bit.ly/48pbpRy. Please direct questions to [email protected]. (This course is open to all, with preference for graduate and undergraduate students.)

(Photo: Lena Struwe / Art: Nikki Shevera)

11/01/2023

Want to go to the rainforest and learn how to nature journal? In the middle of winter? Join us!
Note - deadline is extended to November 5, and this course is for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, staff and faculty and anyone else interested (over 18). Apply today!

There is more info at the link in the post.

Nature Journaling is an OTS course for advanced students, researchers, and anyone who wants to learn how to record nature observations through careful study, illustration, and written annotations. Participants in this 7-day course will develop skills and techniques to improve their observation abilities in the stunning environment of the La Selva Research Station, guided by professional instructors. Our instructors are active nature journalers and artists who depict natural phenomena and organisms. This is not photography nor digital art, and you don’t need to have known how to draw in the past.

The course will be at La Selva Research Station (January 6-12, 2024) in a lowland rain forest in Costa Rica with a wonderful variety of habitats and organisms. The deadline for applications is October 22, 2023. For more information or to apply online, go to https://bit.ly/48pbpRy. Please direct questions to [email protected]. (This course is open to all, with preference for graduate and undergraduate students.)

(Photo: Lena Struwe / Art: Nikki Shevera)