The University of Azuay contains the only herbarium in the province of Azuay

In the school of Biology of the University of Azuay is the Azuay Herbarium, the only one in the province. This is a regional information center on plant diversity

The project was born in 1991 with the aim of supporting the teaching activities in the school of Biology. Due to the development of research on the regional flora and the increase of botanical collections, the specimens were ordered and systematized according to international requirements and at 1998 the Azuay Herbarium was founded with the support and institutional support of the University of Azuay and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FUNDACYT).

Since the year 2003 the herbarium is registered in the Index Herbariorum of the New York Botanical Garden, the world and official herbarium catalog. The Azuay Herbarium has 12.000 collections of more than 3.000 plant species belonging to 220 plant families.

It also has an important collection of the flora of the native forests of Azuay and Cañar, with emphasis on the Paute river basin, in which the collections carried out in the Cajas National Park, Dudas-Mazar, the páramos de Moriré and the Tambillo forest.

In addition, it has collections of native edible fruit trees from the region and collections from the Atocha de Liria de Ambato botanical and historical garden, and approximately 1.000 donated collections from the Cordillera del Cóndor.

Within the working group that integrates the herbarium is its director, Rafaela Ansaloni; Danilo Minga, curator responsible for the identification of nature and the maintenance of botanical collections; Mayra Jiménez, Nubia Guzmán, Ruth Arias and Adolfo Verdugo, who focus on research projects for the university; and finally the interns and students of Biology María Paz Guillén, Zamara Zeas, Zamara Ríos, Joel Soranca.

"The main motivation to progress with the projects and take forward the herbarium is the love of knowledge, curiosity about the life of the plants and also the awareness that without physical support of the samples of vegetation, you can not have the security of the identity of the plants, that is why the collections are always collected and conserved, "said Dr. Ansaloni.

Among the objectives of the herbarium is to document the flora of the region, basically Azuay, Cañar and Morona Santiago, from where they obtain botanical samples to be able to process them, identify them and have the base information on plant diversity.

The base information is the location of the species, its uses and distribution and the botanical identity, that is, each species must have a scientific name, or common names that are important.

The herbarium has a database on the internet where all the botanical species and collections that have been identified are documented.

"The characteristic that can be highlighted of this herbarium and that identifies us of the other herbaria of the country is that it has available to the public from outside all the information about its species and its collections in a database on the internet, the other herbaria of the The country does not show its documents to society, "said the biologist Minga.

The process to identify and make the record of a species begins with a research project and a research permit from the Ministry of the Environment, then in the place you want to investigate the field campaign where the botanical species is collected.

After the collection, the basic data such as the date of collection, the site, geographical coordinates, photographs and information on the traditional uses of the plant are taken, making a brief description specifying if it is a tree, an herb, a plant or a flower.

Then when you reach the herbarium you go to the pressing process, which consists of crushing the species between newspapers and in a botanical press, made of wood, you proceed to the drying process.

Each sample has its code and its field data that are subsequently transmitted on labels. Finally, there is the identification process where the botanical characters are checked with the help of specialized bibliography.