HERBARIUM OF UKRAINIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HORTICULTURE (UM): HISTORY, PRESENT (TO THE 180TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HERBARIUM)

Abstract

The article reveals the history of the Herbarium (UM), its present and scientific significance. The stock collection of herbarized specimens is unique and represents the world's phytodiversity. The herbarium was formed purposefully: by collecting plants during scientific expeditions, exchanges between herbarium institutions, donations from natural history enthusiasts, students taking courses in botany, dendrology, forestry, etc. The Herbarium of the Uman National University of Horticulture (UM) was founded in 1844 in Odesa on the basis of the Main School of Horticulture. This year it celebrates its 180th anniversary. At that time, under the leadership of the first director of the school, Oleksandr Davidovych Nordman, systematic collections of introduced plants were started on the basis of the botanical garden, research of the outskirts of Bessarabia and Crimea during expeditionary trips, and educational practices of students. The history of the herbarium in Odesa since 1849 is connected with the teacher of botany of the school Christopher Isidorovich Herbanovsky; in Uman since 1859 – with the botanist and forester Mykola Ivanovych Annenkov. The herbarium is enriched by the natural flora of Uman, dendroflora, and introductions of open and protected ground of the greenhouse complex of the Uman School of Agriculture and Horticulture. There are personal collections of the school's students, such as Josef Konradovych Pachosky (410 herbarium specimens); dendrological collection of Julius Robertovych Lantsky (1982); Mieczyslaw Blonsky (over 100 specimens) and others who studied the regional flora of their area and Uman region. The scientific part of the herbarium is represented by personalized thematic collections of botany teachers – I. Bilous, O. Bondar, V. Horyacheva, V. Havryliuk, N. Kutova, T. Kravets, O. Svystun, M. Parubok, T. Mamchur. The collections are represented by herbarium collections of taxa of Crimea, Carpathians, Uman and its environs, Sofiyivka arboretum, and regions of Ukraine, which were collected during scientific research and botanical expeditions. The Herbarium (UM) is one of the five oldest herbaria in Ukraine (LW, 1783, CWU, 1825, LWS, 1832, CHEM, 1963) (Herbariums of Ukraine, 2011). Its collections include 27 712 vascular plants, which are divided into historical, scientific and educational parts. Among them are mycological, lichenological, bryological, algological, and carpological collections. In 2013–2015, the collections were inventoried by the curator, associate professor T. O. Kravets, and the successor associate professor T. V. Mamchur and S. Orativska. In 2016, the herbarium was registered in Index Herbariorum (New York) with the identifier (acronym) UM. On February 13, 2024, the herbarium (UM) joined the global network and data infrastructure GBIF – the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, which participates in the formation of databases of historical collections available for processing by both the Ukrainian and international scientific community. The scientific significance of the herbarium is unique, and the stock collections of phytodiversity over the 180 years of its existence have recorded the history and stages of plant research, including introduction work in Odesa and Uman. The UM collections are of considerable historical value, and they are now used to create scientific and educational collections that serve as the basis for researching the natural and cultural flora of Ukraine. Further work with the herbarium consists in publishing the herbarium (UM) in the Index Herbariorum Ucrainicum, as it was little known at the time of its publication in 2011.