The herbarium of Vitebsk State University claims to be recognized as a national heritage of Belarus

March 24, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA/. Staff of the Department of Botany of Vitebsk State University named after P.M. Masherov have prepared documents for the registration of the department's herbarium in the State Register of Scientific Objects Constituting the National Heritage of the Republic of Belarus. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the head of the university's Department of Botany, Leonard Merzhvinsky. Today, the herbarium of the VSU Department of Botany contains about 7,000 herbarium sheets. It consists of a scientific (stock) collection and an educational herbarium, which, in addition to vascular plants, also includes mosses and lichens. The collection features over 1,000 vascular plants, or practically the entire flora of Belarusian Poozerye. In addition, the collection contains herbarium specimens of over 70 species of plants included in the Red Book of Belarus, and over 30 species from the list of plants requiring preventive protection. The recognition of the herbarium as a scientific object constituting the national heritage of Belarus will confirm the great importance of floristic research conducted in the Vitebsk region for the development of botanical science, noted Leonard Merzhvinsky. Furthermore, the status of national heritage imposes a serious responsibility on the university for the preservation and functioning of such a scientific object. The VSU herbarium was used in the preparation of materials for all three editions of the Red Book of Belarus, the scientific work "Determinant of Higher Plants of Belarus," and the academic multi-volume publication "Flora of Belarus." The scientific data of the collection are in demand for the preparation and defense of candidate dissertations, in research conducted by scientists of the National Academy of Sciences, educational institutions of Belarus, and neighboring countries. The scientific information of the herbarium is also important for the long-term monitoring of the state of the flora of Belarusian Poozerye, added Leonard Merzhvinsky. As a scientific collection, the herbarium of the Department of Botany began to be formed in the early 1970s by Viktor Martynenko, who today is a Candidate of Biological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Botany. The first mentions of the study of the flora of the Vitebsk region and herbarium collections date back to the late 18th century. -0-