The University of Canterbury Herbarium (CANU) is a collection of c. 45,000 dried specimens of mostly New Zealand plant species. CANU is a facility for research and teaching and provides UC staff and students with botanical specimens for reference and identification purposes, training in plant recognition, and ecological, biodiversity, anatomical, taxonomic and phylogenetic studies and teaching. In addition, CANU serves as a repository for botanical vouchers used in UC research projects.
The CANU collection is rich in botanical specimens from Canterbury, and especially from the UC Cass field station area and nearby areas. The plant family Asteraceae is particularly well represented and among the historically significant collections are those of R.M. Laing, C.A. Foweraker, and D. Petrie. Other major collections present in the herbarium are those of C.J. Burrows, A.T. Dobson, B.A. Fineran, E.A. Hodgson, M.T. Kalin, D.A. Norton, W.R. Philipson, J.M. Ward, and R.K. Wilson.
