Hungarian Museum Donates Collection of Dried Plants

The efforts of a Brigham Young University researcher have resulted in the donation of a collection of dried plants from a Hungarian museum to BYU.

Terry B. Ball, a BYU doctoral candidate in archaeobotany, traveled to Hungary to gather plants for research that examines plant microfossils to determine what flora may have existed thousands of years ago.

When Brother Ball arrived in the country, he discovered that many of Hungary’s wild-growing plants had been destroyed by extensive agricultural development. However, the Balatoni Museum of Natural History in Keszthely had a collection of 3,000 dried plants stored away in a closet.

With the help of Dr. Ferenc Gyulai, a Hungarian archaeobotanist, Brother Ball persuaded museum curators to donate the specimens to BYU’s Bean Museum herbarium, where more than 2,000 of the dried plants will be restored and cataloged.

“These are excellent examples of eastern European flora,” said Dr. Stanley L. Welsh, director of the Bean Museum. “The collection will be an important reference for the many eastern European plants that inevitably will be introduced into the United States in the coming years.”