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Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium

Starting with one cabinet of about 1,000 plant specimens in 1969, Dr. Robert Freckmann (and Dr. Frank W. Bowers) built this herbarium into the second largest in Wisconsin, with over 200,000 specimens. The website at http://wisflora.herbarium.wisc.edu/ generates over 20,000,000 hits per year.

Collection Statistics

Our mission is to document the occurrence of plants in Wisconsin, focusing on Central Wisconsin (Marathon, Portage, and Wood Counties).
  • 71,443 occurrence
  • 51,051 (71%) georeferenced
  • 45,281 (63%) with images
  • 70,064 (98%) identified to species
  • 151 families
  • 664 genera
  • 1,799 species
  • 2,103 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)

UWSP students come from throughout the state and have the unique opportunity to participate in our statewide plant inventory. Other research emphases are aquatic vascular plants, grasses, bryophytes, and lichens.

We train volunteers to document and mount specimens in our ever-growing collection. Interested in learning more? Please reach out to our curator, Associate Professor Stephanie Lyon.