UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity Policy on Destructive Sampling of Herbarium specimens

1. Permission from Herbarium staff must be secured in advance of undertaking any destructive sampling of DAV or AHUC specimens.
2. The investigator must have made a diligent and good faith effort to obtain appropriate material for extraction from other sources.
3. The investigator must have enough experience with the laboratory techniques and the characteristics of their group to ensure that there is a reasonable probability of successfully extracting useable DNA from the sampled material.
4. Only material in the fragment pockets may be used.
5. Only the minimum amount of material needed may be taken.
6. Only one or two specimens per taxon may be sampled.
7. A specimen may not be sampled a second time.
8. Sampling is restricted to non-type specimens.
9. Any sampled specimen must be clearly annotated with what material was removed, by whom, on what date, and for what purpose.
10. Acknowledge both DAV or AHUC and each individual collector of material in each publication in which resulting data are used.
11. Provide the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity with reprints from all resultant publications.

Exceptions may be made to this policy, but they are granted only after consultation with the Curator of the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity.