The fate of 250,000 plant specimens at a herbarium in Iowa City is still unknown following a hearing Monday, officials said Tuesday.

A judge has yet to rule whether an injunction preventing the transfer of the species to Iowa State from the University of Iowa should be upheld until the end of litigation.

Currently, the species are being held in Iowa City until the ruling is made addressing a temporary injunction filed March 2. The transfer of the species was supposed to begin March 1 and finish by March 15.

A lawsuit was filed against the University of Iowa Feb. 27 to prevent the species transfer to the Ada Hayden Herbarium at Iowa State by the curator of University of Iowa Herbarium, Diana Horton, and supporters of Iowa’s herbarium.

The plaintiffs argue the agreement between Iowa State and the University of Iowa to move the herbarium was unlawful, said James Larew, Horton’s attorney.

“They are moving the plants without documentation,” Larew said.

Both he and Horton said there was a lack of due process on the decision to move the specimens.

“Administration did not follow policy to come to that decision,” Horton said. “There are procedures set out by the Museum of Natural History that require that any decision to [remove] possessions [of the museum] must be done in an open fashion” — a fashion Horton said was not present in the species transfer.

Deaccession policies are in place at most museums. The policies prohibit museum possessions from being removed without the intent of being returned, which is the current case with the herbarium. None of these policies have been followed, Larew said.

The decision by University of Iowa officials to move the plants was done without consulting Horton or other biological science faculty, Horton said.

“The curator should have been consulted with before the decision was made,” Horton said.

Besides her complaints about policy, Horton said she also opposes the transfer because of the negative effect it would have on University of Iowa students.

Larew said the plants’ removal would leave students studying biology without an important resource needed for research.

“The herbarium is a library for biologists,” he said. “Imagine if they moved the law library in the middle of the school year.”

ISU officials said they are worried people have the misconception that the lawsuit has pitted Iowa State against the University of Iowa.

“It’s not a case of Iowa vs. ISU,” said Paul Tanaka, university counsel.

“Both universities believe [the transfer] is the best thing. ISU has already invested time, money and resources to accept the transfer. Stopping the transfer would create a loss of resources.”

— Daily staff reports contributed to this article.