Rupp Collection

Full description

The Rupp collection consists of 3,000 - 4,000 vascular plants, all of which were collected between the late 1890s and 1930s. The specimens were mounted by Rupp himself and rather than using labels, Rupp annotated directly onto the specimen sheets. Rupp's collection covers the diversity of vascular flora throughout south eastern Australia and Rupp mounted multiple collections on the one sheet of card to indicate this. Rupp's orchid collections are mainly from New South Wales and were sent to the National Herbarium of New South Wales, while his non-orchid collections were donated to Trinity College, then forwarded on to Botany in 1926. Although his collection is thought to have initiated the Herbarium at the School of Botany, and a plaque dated 1925 on the original herbarium cabinets signifies this, it now seems that this collection merely augmented an already existing plant collection, resulting in official recognition of the University of Melbourne Herbarium.