Visit the Flora of Northampton by Renee Klann ’19

About This Project

Renee Klann, ’19, created a digital map of plants from Northampton, combining records from an online database and specimens from the Smith College Herbarium. She wanted to increase viewers’ familiarity with local plants and spotlight the herbarium, which is an underutilized resource on campus.

What Is a Herbarium?

A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens and the place where they are kept. The Herbarium of Smith College contains nearly 60,000 plant specimens collected over more than a century, and it’s used for botanical research and teaching. For more information, you can read The Herbarium of Smith College: An Illustrated Memoir, by C. John Burk, Elsie Damon Simonds Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences.