Pinaceae in the Herbarium of the Institute of Botany at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland (KRA)

Abstract

The Herbarium of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland (KRA) has extensive collections. The Pinaceae family in KRA embraces 1,057 herbarium sheets and contains representatives of eight out of 11 genera usually distinguished in the family. The collection of the family in KRA contains ca. 54–61% of the 220–250 species occurring in the world. The most numerous species (116 sheets) is Pinus sylvestris. There is one isoneotypus of Larix decidua Mill var. carpatica Domin (KRA 224704) and one syntypus of Tsuga caroliniana Engelm. (KRA 224989) in the collection. There are 706 sheets from Europe, 504 of them come from areas covered by the contemporary borders of Poland, 206 from North America, 98 from Asia, two from Africa, and one from Australia. The herbal material of the family deposited in KRA was collected in the past 200 years. The oldest specimen was collected in 1821. There are 65 sheets which date from the nineteenth century, 56 from the years 1900 to 1918, 173 from 1919 to 1939, 532 from 1944 to 2000, and 139 sheets from the twenty-first century. The most interesting collections include: the exsiccata from the nineteenth century, sheets from China (1925–1926), sheets collected by various Russian expeditions to Siberia, the collection of Professors Jan Kornaś and Anna Medwecka-Kornaś from North America, and collections documenting the scientific activity of the “Kraków geobotanical school” in the twentieth century.

Keywords

• collections of dried plants
• history
• pine family
• history of botany