Herbarium of Economic Botany of Ecuador QUSF: Historical account, development, representativity, and types

The Herbarium of Economic Botany of Ecuador QUSF of Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador), registered in the Index Herbariorum since 2001, holds over twenty thousand catalogued specimens of 2131 species of Magnoliophyta and Pteridophyta. One third of these specimens keep information on uses and applications of economic value. Asteraceae and Solanaceae are the most represented families in the collection. Almost half of the specimens come from highly diverse Andean cloud forests. The collection has specimens of 23, out of 24, provinces of Ecuador, Pichincha being the most represented province. Seven type specimens of six species are deposited at the QUSF, including the holotypes of Larnax macasiana S. Deanna, Leiva & Barboza, and Tiputinia foetida PE. Berry & C. Woodw. In this article, we present a historic overview of the herbarium, analyse the collection representativity, and describe future development plans.