A great new primer
If you don’t know much about the world of collecting and preserving plant specimens, fear not. Maura C. Flannery has just published a primer that will serve you well as an introduction to plant herbaria. Note, however, that she doesn’t try to teach you how to collect plants but she does give you some hints. For example, always try to show leaf undersides when you press your plants.
I got my first lesson in plant collecting and pressing as an undergraduate at the University of Saskatchewan. The summer before my fall plant systematics course was set to begin the professor handed out plant presses and told us to go collect.
That’s why I found myself in the dry, desert-like town of Eastend, Saskatchewan. To make some cash I got a terrible job at a local motel and collected plants after work. Unfortunately, the local hills were full of cactuses which don’t press well. Later, when I mentioned my struggles, my boss introduced me to a local science teacher. He drove me to a coulee which looked like an oasis. It was a huge depression in the landscape and it was full of vegetation. Soon my plant press was loaded with plants.
I have no idea if the plants made it into the permanent U of S herbarium collection but I know my professor kept several of my pressed plants.
Herbariums are important
Plant collections are important for research and now with technology improving, there is a push to digitize plant collections. One day we should have a world plant database accessible to anyone.
Also, plant collecting can be fun. First you have to find the plants you are after and then you have to key them out so you can identify them to plant species. Both tasks can be difficult. The terrain might be brutal and the keys might be hard to follow. Flannery covers all of this, and more.
I still remember spending time in the University of Saskatchewan herbarium looking at preserved specimens and wondering what happened to the collectors. My dream is to visit the biggest herbarium there is at Kew Botanic Gardens in England. Until then I have Flannery’s book to entertain me.
If you like plants, you will enjoy this primer on plant collecting and preserving.
