We invite you to register for the upcoming 2026 annual TORCH Conference 8-10 July 2026, at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station in Kingston, OK.
Paying for your stay at the biological station will be done through their website. When they provide us with the link to do so, we will send it out to all of you, and it will be added to the registration form. However, you do not need to complete that before submitting your registration form, if fact we encourage you to submit your registration first!
The agenda for tomorrow's meeting is here: 2026-04-15 Agenda<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://docs.google.com/document/d/1InrGXY0Lkq2Aez1OOAzI8ki5uK0YQw8G/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114960955539338128287&rtpof=true&sd=true__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!7lodypM96fAcMpOA9JXr5xDNHvB7XLnfHUz7vOXVjBWIwMAdEST9wi_zuLq8P0pih62XKmM15kx65dcWeaI$ [docs[.]google[.]com]> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://docs.google.com/document/d/1InrGXY0Lkq2Aez1OOAzI8ki5uK0YQw8G/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114960955539338128287&rtpof=true&sd=true__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!7lodypM96fAcMpOA9JXr5xDNHvB7XLnfHUz7vOXVjBWIwMAdEST9wi_zuLq8P0pih62XKmM15kx65dcWeaI$ [docs[.]google[.]com]> Meeting at 3pm tomorrow (Wednesday, 4/15): https://oklahoma.zoom.us/j/97991607938
Here are the March meeting notes<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HynBxV0TpOJKAFRcRE_K6Bf3Ze7iTFre/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114960955539338128287&rtpof=true&sd=true__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!7lodypM96fAcMpOA9JXr5xDNHvB7XLnfHUz7vOXVjBWIwMAdEST9wi_zuLq8P0pih62XKmM15kx6g3XlWEQ$ [docs[.]google[.]com]>. Please consider volunteering to take notes at tomorrow's meeting!
Muchas gracias, Tiana
Tiana F. Rehman (she/her) | Director of Herbarium Collections (BRIT-SMU-VDB-NLU) Botanical Research Institute of Texas | 1700 University Dr., Fort Worth, TX 76107-3400 | fwbg.org [log in to unmask] | O: 817.332.4441 | D: 817.546.1845
There are some open positions in our region for Plant Protection and Quarantine Officer (Plant Health Safeguarding Specialist) with the Department of Agriculture and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Please share with anyone you think may be interested.
I am actively collecting Bryophyte specimens in Northwestern Oklahoma as part of my research at NWOSU. At my old university, Bryophyte specimen packets were housed in specimen boxes (about six inches wide).
How does your herbarium house Bryophyte specimens and where do you get the specimen boxes (if you use them)?
I doubt that you will find consensus on this question. Because I used to work at the Missouri Botanical Garden, when I arrived at the University of Texas I copied the practice at that institution for our small bryophyte collection of using 4-6 inch card filing cabinets, which work well to store standard moss packets vertically (but do not seal as well as real herbarium cabinets. I have also seen herbaria that use standard herbarium cabinets with bin boxes (e.g., https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://herbariumsupply.com/product-category/storage-filing/bin-boxes/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!7hQ9aC4cE939YycVWTX6Kh7GcOdUZc--ELJ-2U0GFpL1tHCbqeE0l0XIalo4pH1zC1nV7p46GqTbX_xaJRNbp67ToFFqekKSZrOrYe8$ [herbariumsupply[.]com]), usually with a divider down the middle of the box to facilitate the creation of two rows
We use palm folders at TTC: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://herbariumsupply.com/product/palm-folders-137/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-dhgKRvZBccOQmxlp8lBiBShqzNNWtiHV8kgIZuCbBKzRuLO6AQjsYPE0BfDCqUokq3mtoU1YphWsVrCpU734bqyOa0$ [herbariumsupply[.]com] See attached photos - they work nicely within existing cabinets, and you can put probably 40 specimens in a folder and five folders per standard herbarium cabinet “cubby". Our collection is very small - only about 300 specimens in that photo but we’ve left ourselves plenty of room to grow within each palm folder!
I have never seen or used the palm folder used for Bryophytes. I have always used boxes and am well aware of the dangers of stuffing, but had never considered the issue of the soil falling.
I am starting our collection from scratch here. The area of northwestern Oklahoma is desperately under sampled for the Bryophytes. I am starting on the urban mosses, primarily because I still need to work out getting access to land. I will be databasing all my collections as soon as I get them in the herbarium so that they will
