University of Wisconsin-Madison Herbarium (WIS)

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Herbarium, founded in 1849, is a museum collection of dried, labeled fungi of state, national and international importance, which is used extensively for taxonomic and ecological research, as well as for teaching and public service. Today WIS is estimated to hold >1.2 million specimens of algae, fungi, lichens, and plants, placing it among the top 1% of the world’s largest herbarium. It is ranked 17th largest in the world outside of Europe, 11th largest in the Western Hemisphere, 10th largest in the USA, and the 3rd largest public university herbarium in the Americas.
Contacts: Kenneth M. Cameron, kmcameron@wisc.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Live Data managed directly within data portal
Global Unique Identifier: 87505ca2-da02-4939-8798-5d403c72b535
Digital Metadata: EML File
Collection Statistics
  • 91,204 specimen records
  • 68,358 (75%) georeferenced
  • 87,275 (96%) with images (87,419 total images)
  • 87,888 (96%) identified to species
  • 346 families
  • 1,951 genera
  • 16,591 species
  • 16,993 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics