The Massey Herbarium is referred to as a regional herbarium. Our size (115,000 specimens) means that our collections are centered on Virginia and the southeastern USA. Larger herbaria (millions of specimens) can have global representation in their collections.
This doesn’t mean the Massey Herbarium doesn’t pull its weight globally! I looked at our specimen transfers over the last twenty years. These transfers include instances when we participated in loans or exchanges with other institutions. We have worked with herbaria, museums, universities, and research centers on five continents and 12 countries! Our publication record is even more impressive, but that will wait for a future blog post!