In addition to the collections of Garden scientists and students, the Garden has committed to curating and preserving the wealth of information accumulated by lichen specialists through the incorporation of the collections of Jonathan Dey (30,000 collections, focus on macrolichens of North America, especially Appalachia), Elisabeth Lay (17,000 collections, focus on eastern North America) and Clyde Reed (20,000 collections, focus on Mid-Atlantic Region eastern North America) among others.