09/26/2026
The OSU Seed Lab is home to the Emil Zivney Seed Herbarium, a unique collection containing seeds from more than 20,000 species and over 4,000 seed pods collected by OSU alumnus Emil Zivney and his wife, Hazel. The collection includes everything from common species to rare and unusual specimens, making it a valuable resource for seed identification.
This year we are participating in OSU Foundation's Beavs Give Fundraiser in order to raise funds to continue to work on preserving, organizing and digitizing this collection so that it can be more a more accessible resource and for training current and future seed analysts. As part of this fundraising effort, we hope to purchase specialized equipment for our digital microscope to create high-quality images with accurate seed measurements.. This investment will directly benefit our customers as well: the same technology used to document the herbarium and develop training resources for analysts can also be used to provide enhanced seed images to customers when needed.
Our fundraising campaign runs NOW until October–31. We hope you will consider making a donation to help preserve this remarkable collection and develop it into a resource that supports seed analyst training, seed identification, and the seed industry for years to come.
Link: https://www.beavsgive.org/organizations/emil-zivney-herbarium-restoration-and-conservation
Help us kick off this fundraiser and reach our goal of $2,000!
