Horticulture and Landscape National Institute. Angers / e-ReColNat Infrastructure

The INH Herbarium, kept in AGROCAMPUS-OUEST (Angers) can be divided in 2 historically distinct sections, the MM Grelon and Le Boulch Herbarium, and the donation of Dr. Poirier, to which several other small collections (students’ herbarium, and other related herbaria) amounting to nearly 40 boxes, can be added.

The Grelon & Le Boulch Herbarium

It includes Angiosperms from France (mainly from Angers) collected between 1950 and 1990. Most collects were done by Mr. Grelon, and are comprised in 8 boxes.

The donation of the Dr. Poirier

The entire collection is comprised in the other 32 boxes, and has a fairly complex history. Originally, this donation was intended to the plant biology department of the Catholic University of the West (managed by Abbé Corillon) that had no place to properly store it, and thus Jean Grelon, a student of the university at the time (1956-1957), preserved himself the collection. The donor, Dr. Poirier, lived in Durtal, and no other information seemed to be known on this person, his story, or the story of the collection at the time. The analysis of the material shows at least 3 important origins: The Angers region, the Pyrenees (collects from Bordère and from another unidentified collector), and a set of plants cultivated in the surroundings of Tours by the viscount of Lamote-Baracé.

Material composing the Herbarium (meaning the Grelon herbarium, the Poirier herbarium, and the other small collections) is particularly well preserved. Although the number of parts is rather small (around 9,000 samples) in comparison to other local or national herbaria, this herbarium gathers a rather high diversity of plants from the French flora, either Angiosperms or Cryptogams. The collection is particularly rich in cryptogams, as nearly a quarter of the samples are either bryophytes, lichens or even algae or fungi. Moreover, it contains 2 sets of samples (around 100 samples total) of phytopathogen fungi.