Arkansas State University (STAR)

The Arkansas State University Herbarium (STAR) is focused on collections of vascular plants from the Crowley\'s Ridge, Mississippi Alluvial Plain, and Ozark Highlands ecoregions. The geographic emphasis of the collections is in Northeast Arkansas, the ancestral lands of indigenous nations including the OGahPah (Quapaw). The collection was founded by Delzie Demaree, and its longest-serving curator, Leon Richards, contributed the largest number of specimens. After Dr. Richards\' retirement, Staria Vanderpool focused on expanding collections through research in seeps and small bogs on Crowley\'s Ridge. Travis Marsico has curated the collection since 2010 with an emphasis on expanding the collections of graminoid monocots and other underrepresented groups from the local region. Other holdings include medicinal and poisonous plants, out-of-state collections from Missouri and the Carolinas and other areas of the southeastern U.S.A., and invasive species collected at and near shipping ports, along the Mississippi River, and other areas of human commerce and landscape disturbance. International collections include specimens from Canada, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Students have contributed a large number of specimens through coursework and during floristic master’s theses and conservation-focused doctoral research.