George F. Ledingham Herbarium
The late Dr. G. F. Ledingham (1911-2006) established what is now the George F. Ledingham Herbarium in 1945. He devoted a good portion of his lifetime to expanding the collections of the Herbarium, both while he was a full-time faculty member and during twenty plus years of retirement. The Herbarium has approximately 50,000 vascular plant specimens, 10,000 bryophyte specimens, and 10,000 specimens of lichens. The collection of plants is listed as "USAS" in the Index Herbariorum.
A brief overview
The herbarium became a reality in 1945 when George Ledingham became Assistant Professor of Biology at what was then Regina College and later the Regina Campus of the University of Saskatchewan. It was initially housed at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina. The first plants in the collection were species of Carex (sedges) which had been collected 1933-37 while he was summer assistant in the Biology Department in the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. At that time, he was working on his Master’s degree under the supervision of W.P. Thompson. However, he also went on field trips with W. P. Fraser (1867-1943), who in his retirement years was building the University of Saskatchewan herbarium. One exciting part of those field trips was the finding of additional species of Carex. Starting with 6 species in 1933, they were able finally to list 98 Saskatchewan Carex species (Ledingham & Fraser [1943] American Midland Naturalist, Vol 29, pp 42-50).
With the completion of a new campus that is now the University of Regina, the herbarium moved to a new home. George Ledingham and numerous other collectors added to the herbarium over the years, with specimens from Saskatchewan and from around the world. George Ledingham was especially interested in the legume genus Astragalus (and relatives), and the herbarium has a substantial Astragalus collection.
The herbarium is currently in the process of digitizing its collection, starting with the 22,000 accessions of Saskatchewan vascular plants.
Herbarium List of Specimens & Digitization
We have recently compiled the Saskatchewan vascular plants part of the Herbarium (slightly over 22,000 accessions) into a list. The list will be continually updated, including adding the current species names for those species whose taxonomy has changed (the list mostly shows the species names at the time of collection, and does not yet reflect taxonomic revisions). The list is available here.
The Herbarium is also in the early stages of digitizing the Saskatchewan vascular plants. We are scanning the specimens at 1600 dpi and will eventually make the scans available on Canadensys and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Some examples of scans of accessions (at a lower resolution) are available here, and further details about the digitization are available here.
Please Note: The images presented are intended solely for research and educational purposes. Unauthorized use, reproduction, or distribution of these images for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited without written permission.
An overview of the recent work happening in the Ledingham Herbarium has been published in the journal Botany.
Ledingham Herbarium in the Media & Community
Contact us:
- Erin Ennis (Dept. of Biology), erin.ennis@uregina.ca
- Mel Hart (Assoc. Dean of Science), mel.hart@uregina.ca
- Harold Weger (Dept. of Biology), harold.weger@uregina.ca
- General email: gfl.herbarium@uregina.ca
Thank you to our Donors!
The work happening in the George F. Ledingham Herbarium is made possible by the generous support of Career Launcher, the Saskatchewan Fish and Wildlife Development Fund, the Faculty of Science, Humanities Research Institute, and private donors.
If you would like to contribute to our project, please visit our fundraising page.