ІСТОРИЧНІ ВІХИ ТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ РОЗВИТКУ НАУКОВОГО ГЕРБАРІЮ ДНІПРОВСЬКОГО НАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ ІМЕНІ ОЛЕСЯ ГОНЧАРА (DSU)

Abstract

The Herbarium of the Dnipro National University (DSU) was founded at the same time with the University in 1918. At present, it is a collection of vascular plants containing about 100 thousand herbarium sheets. Its main constituent divisions are herbarium collections of famous Ukrainian florists, gatherings from the steppe zone of Ukraine, Crimea and the Caucasus. There are authentic samples of species and intraspecies taxa of Poaceae described by Y. Prokudin at the beginning of the last century: Elytrigia maeoticа (Prokud.) Prokud. specim. auth.; Agropyron larenkoanum Prokud. specim. auth.; Agropyron tanaiticum Nevski. f. glabriuscula (Pidopl.) Prokudin. One third of the herbarium collections is stored in special Hungarian metallic cabinets, the other part is in metal cabinets with drawers. DSU herbarium`s materials are a documentary scientific basis for preparing floristic summaries, determinants, theses and compiling lists of rare species in the region. The modern DSU herbarium has the following departments (in parentheses the number of herbarium sheets is indicated): 1) historical collections – I. Akinfiev’s herbarium (7800); acad. O. Grossheim’s herbarium (5600); collection of exiccatae of Herbarium Florae Rossica (1000); prof. Yu. Prokudin’s herbarium (1000); 2) herbarium of the steppe zone of Ukraine (67 000); 3) herbarium of the Crimea and the Caucasus (3500); 4) herbarium of various geographical areas (10 000); 5) exchange fund (1000). Herbarium is staffed by A. Engler system. The main collectors of the DSU Herbarium are employees, students and post-graduate students of the Department of Geobotany, Soil Science and Ecology and the Research Institute of Biology of DNU. Herbarium DSU is listed in the Index Herbariorum. The scientific herbarium DSU needs further elaboration, including installation, preventive work on pest control, numbering of herbarium sheets, compilation of a complete electro­nic catalog and preparation of documentation for the assignation of historically valuable herbari­um collections the status of the National Heritage of Ukraine.