Abstract

   The chesterfield county and tri-cities (Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg) of Virginia are rich in floristic elements due to their location and soil type. Moreover, the flora has been studied to such a small extent that is still lying as blank spot in the county distribution maps. These areas are now facing urbanization due to increase in population and local industries that needs immediate attention as there will be a severe loss of biodiversity. The publications available are check lists of plant species in the chesterfield area in 1970’s. The current exploration by Virginia State University (VSU) aims to collect the flora, classify them into families according to Bentham and Hooker system of classification and Naming of plants as per the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). The measurement of the morphological characters following the artificial dichotomous keys for genera and species. The current activity in the department also involves the fingerprinting of herbarium specimens for future research needs. This forms a valuable addition to the existing flora at the department and the knowledge of the flora of the state Virginia. For this reason, a floristic survey of these areas reinitiated in April 2008 at Department of Biology, VSU by the authors is presented.

Keywords: VSU; Colonial Heights; Biodiversity

References

• Michael A Terry and Hayden W John. “Vascular flora of Powhatan County, Virginia”. Castanea 72.3 (2007): 138-158.
• Brent W., et al. “An Emendation of the Vascular Flora of Great Falls Park, Fairfax County, Virginia”. Castanea 73.2 (2008): 123-149.
• Shaukat M Siddiqi. Vascular Flora of the Southeastern section of Matoaca District Chesterfield County, Virginia. A Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of the Virginia State College in Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (1970): 53.
• Arnold Krochmal’ and Connie Krochmal. A Checklist of Common Plants of the Appalachian trail in The Jefferson National Forest, Virginia”. USDA-FRS Note SE-305 (1971). 
• Chapter News at Virginia Native Plant Society https://www.vnps.org.

Citation

Citation: Satya S Narina., et al. "The Virginia State University Herbarium (VSUH)". Acta Scientific Microbiology 3.1 (2020): 103-106.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Satya S Narina., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.