Austin Peay State University Herbarium (APSC)

Austin Peay State University Herbarium (APSC), established in 1942, has roughly 138,000 specimens and is the second largest herbarium in the Kentucky/Tennessee region (as of 2024). Although located in Clarksville Tennessee, the APSC collection is mostly Kentucky-based with significant collections from the Louisville, Bowling Green, and Land Between the Lakes areas.

In 2017, APSC nearly doubled from its previous size due to the acquisition of the former Western Kentucky University herbarium (WKU) and Davies Herbarium of Louisville (DHL). These herbaria included the extensive unprocessed personal collections of Max Medley, a prolific botanist. Over the next six years these specimens were processed and integrated into APSC, with the final specimens filed into the cabinets by late 2022. Throughout this process every incoming specimen's identity was verified by former collections manager Mason Brock, resulting in >15,000 identity-changing annotations.

Under the curation of Dwayne Estes, APSC has become one of the fastest growing herbaria in the Southeast. In addition to an active graduate student program, APSC is also the home of the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative (SGI) dedicated to grassland conservation science.

Significant contributors: Max Medley, Edward Chester, Robert Kral, Dwayne Estes, and Mason Brock.

Data policy: In order to uphold our conservation and education based values, and to advance the purpose of this herbarium digitization project, APSC has chosen a policy of information openness regarding collection localities. Specimen images will be promptly supplied to all users upon request, with exception for taxa of extreme global rarity (G1) or those threatened with economic exploitation. (Requests these for taxa will be considered on a case-by-case basis.)