Support the Herbarium!
Thank you for your interest in supporting the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity.
The Center for Plant Diversity operating budget comes partly from fees for services we provide but mostly from the generous donations from its users and supporters. You could be one of these!
Donate to the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity
The staff and specimens of the Center for Plant Diversity are a critical regional and campus resource for information on plant diversity. Our natural environment is changing, and the importance of preserving an archive of plant diversity is increasingly urgent. The Center for Plant Diversity houses such an archive – a herbarium of over 300,000 dried and pressed plant specimens collected around the world, many of which date back to the late 19th century. Want to know what wine grapes were grown in California in 1900? Interested in what native plants once grew in the Central Valley? Look in the herbarium!
The Center for Plant Diversity staff provide plant identification services, help researchers preserve specimens from their research projects, and teach students and the public about plant identification and plant collecting. They also share the stories associated with the specimens. Herbarium specimens not only show how plants look and where they are found, they are part of the rich history of plant collectors who have explored nature, climbed mountains, and crossed the seas to discover new plant species.
You Play a Critical Role in Supporting Us
There are two categories of funds you can donate to:
Current Use Gifts
These donations go into a pot of money that we use right away.
Herbarium General Support Fund
These donations might go towards consumable supplies for mounting specimens, for books for our reference library, or for a certain piece of equipment we need.
Endowments
These donations go to a fund managed by the university, and we get a part of the interest the investment earns once each year. This means your donation comes to us in small part now, but continues to generate funds for us over the long term.
The Ellen Dean Herbarium Endowment
The Ellen Dean Herbarium Endowment is a named endowment honoring Ellen’s decades of service as Curator of the Center for Plant Diversity Herbarium. It was recently established by volunteers, friends and family, alumni, and the extended herbaria community. Interest income from this fund is used for key functions of the operation of the herbarium: support for student staff and purchase of curation supplies.The Center for Plant Diversity Herbarium Endowment
This fund is similar to the above in that its yearly interest income can also be used for salaries and supplies.Donate to the "Center for Plant Diversity Herbarium Endowment"