ABOUT THE “Alfredo Paredes” HERBARIUM (QAP)

The Alfredo Paredes Herbarium (QAP), founded in 1990 in the Ex School of Biology, Faculty of Philosophy of the Central University of Ecuador, is registered in the Index Herbariorum (https://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/herbarium-details/?irn=126248) and published in the Taxon Magazine 50, May 2001.

It is located in the campus of Ciudad Universitaria, Avenida América y Carvajal, Facultad de Filosofía building, sixth floor, north wing. It is directed by Dr. Carlos Eduardo Cerón Martínez MSc. since its creation until the present (e-mail: carlosceron57@hotmail.com ).

The support staff consists of the herbarium's research associates, friends of botanical research and occasional volunteers. As of March of this year, the Herbarium has 115,000 botanical collections, approximately 2,000 - 3,000 collections per year.

The collections of the Herbarium correspond to all the natural regions of Continental Ecuador, are the result of research carried out through the application of quantitative methodologies, such as: permanent plots, transects and ethnobotany with preference in the protected areas of the Ecuadorian state.

The herbarium collection also includes: medicinal plants that are sold in the markets of the provincial capitals of the Andes of Ecuador, collection of mosses, lichens, macroscopic fungi, nuts, sections of stems of dried lianas and lianas, botanical library, albums with INEN size dried specimens of the most representative families for didactic student use. CINCHONIA magazine is the organ of diffusion of the research carried out by the Herbarium.