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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Grass Research
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY
GRASS RESEARCH

History of the Poaceae Collections

History of the Poaceae collections in the United States National Herbarium (US)

The grass collection began as part of the USDA, Division of Agrostology. The USDA grass herbarium was later incorporated into Smithsonian Institution Department of Botany, as the United States National Herbarium.  There are now nearly half-a-million grass specimens in the US herbarium.  The collection has had continuous, often overlapping, curation by Agrostologists from 1872 to present. The collection contains over 1300 type specimens. The collection is worldwide in scope, with nearly every genus represented by at least one specimen. It is comprehensive for species of North America and Mexico, and includes the vast majority of other Latin American species. For the rest of the world the collection is rich in historical material sent as gifts from European herbaria or bought in sets of exsiccatae, and a several government funded collection expedition. The collection is still growing.  Peterson and Soreng have added nearly 35,000 collections since 1988, from Arctic Canada and Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, Europe, Tanzania, Turkey, Russian Caucasus and Far East., Kyrgyz Republic, China, and Australia.  This extensive collection makes US a focus for grass research around the world.

US Agrostologists Past and Present

MD (1847), Curator of the US National Herbarium from 1872 to 1893 (father of G. R. Vasey).

https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=6#page/686

Scribner worked at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture beginning in 1985, passing their curation on to Piper. He published some 50 papers and books on grasses.

https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=2#page/768

Piper worked at the Bureau of Plant Industry from 1903, initially on grasses, especially on Festuca, and then on forage crops in general. 

https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=4#page/284

Hitchcock worked at the USDA beginning in 1901, and took over curation of the grasses from Piper in 1905(?). He authored more than 100 papers, and several books on grasses, including the Manual of Grasses of the United States.  He made over 22,000 collections, and published nearly 500 new taxa. Influential in instilling the Type Specimen method for stabilizing plant names in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Worked with Chase on grass nomenclature, gathering grass type specimen material from major European herbaria, and building the Hitchcock & Chase grass library.

https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=2#page/238

Agnes Chase, joined the USDA as an illustrator in 1903.  Working with Hitchcock on the Manual of Grasses of the United States (1935), and later revising it (1951), she became an expert Agrostologist, specializing in Panicoideae (Panicum s.l. and Paspalum), working for the USDA until 1939.  Between 1905 and 1929, she made some 10,000 collections. She continued to curate the grasses as a Research Associate with the Division of Plants at the U.S. National Museum up to 1963. With Cornelia D. Niles she published the monumental Index to Grass Species (1962; https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/98901#/summary).

https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=1#page/535

https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=11#page/67

Swallen MS, joined the USDA Bureau of Plant Industry in 1925, and then the Smithsonian Institution in 1945, where he served as Curator of Poaceae, and then Chair of the Botany Dept., retiring in 1964.  He published some 80 papers on grasses.

https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=6#page/122

McClure served as a Professor of Botany at Lingnan University Canton, China, from 1919 to 1940.  From 1941 on he worked at the Smithsonian Institution, bringing his extensive living and herbarium Asian bamboo collections with him.  He was a specialist on woody bamboos, on which he published some 30 papers.

https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/tl-2/browse.cfm?vol=3#page/231

Tom Soderstrom, PhD (1964), joined the Smithsonian in 1965 as Curator of grasses.  He published some 50 papers on grasses, from 1970 on focused primarily on bamboos. He collected over 8,000 specimens.

PhD (1988). Paul came to the Smithsonian Institution as Curator of grasses from 1988 forward. He has published over 170 papers on grasses, and making nearly 26,000 collections.  Specializing in subfamily Chloridoideae, particularly in Muhlenbergia.

PhD (2005).  Kostya arrived at the Smithsonian Institution Research Associate, with a Fulbright Scholarship, and has been with us more or less continuously from 2006 forward. He is a specialist in tribe Stipeae, and molecular phylogenetics of grasses.

PhD (1986). Rob began work as the Chief Editor of the Catalogue of New World Grasses Catalogue of New World Grasses in 1993, and has been in residence at the Smithsonian Institution as a Fellow, then Collaborator, then Research Associate since 1996.  Along with Gerrit Davidse (Missouri Botanical Garden), he is responsible for upkeep of grass data in the TROPICOS.org database. He has published nearly 150 papers on grasses, and made some 10,000 collections. Specializing in Poa and tribe Poeae, grass nomenclature and classification.