The UL Lafayette Herbarium serves the national and international botanical communities, as well as serving as the regional herbarium for Acadiana. The Herbarium loans plant specimens for study to botanical institutions around the world. The UL Lafayette Herbarium holds the most complete record-- in the form of actual plant specimens of the flora of the Acadian region of Louisiana. The UL Lafayette Herbarium was founded in the early 1940s and presently holds about 124,000 specimens, including approximately 23,000 specimens of bryophytes (primarily mosses), and 5,000 specimens of mostly marine Algae. The Herbarium is rich in Louisiana flora, with special emphasis on Acadiana flora, wetland and coastal plants, and pteridophytes (ferns and "fern allies") of Louisiana, and on bryophytes of the southern United States. The general bryophyte holdings emphasize mosses of the Gulf Coastal Plain of the United States and Mexico, the West Indies, and Amazonia, and also include major representation of the moss family Calymperaceae from tropical regions around the world. Important collections include those of Charles M. Allen (especially Poaceae), Garrie P. Landry, Robert J. Lemaire, Alex Lasseigne (especially Fabaceae), John J. Lynch (wetland plants), Glen Montz (wetland plants), William D. Reese (especially bryophytes), John W. Thieret, and Karl M. Vincent (especially Scrophulariaceae).