Margaret H. Fulford, the UC herbarium’s founder and namesake, was an expert in bryophytes. She began UC’s collection in 1927 and supervised it until her retirement in 1974.
“She was the world authority on Latin American liverworts. During her time as curator, she accumulated the majority of UC’s liverwort collection,” Tepe said.
Her successor, UC botanist Jerry Snider, was a moss expert who turned UC’s moss collection of a few hundred specimens into a repository of more than 24,000 specimens when he retired in 2001.
“As a curator, I am thrilled that the specimens held in the herbarium at the University of Cincinnati will be available to anyone working with these fascinating organisms,” Tepe said.
Tepe, too, is adding to UC’s collection with his fieldwork. He is adept at finding the tiny plants during his field surveys.
“They’re hard to find. They’re small. They’re inconspicuous,” he said.
And UC’s collection has a surprising geographic reach. The herbarium has specimens from as far away as the Indian Himalayas.