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Herbarium Specimen Preparation

Herbarium specimens are prepared by carefully collecting representative parts of plants such as leaves, flowers, fruits, and bark. Key details about the plant's locality, habitat, and features are recorded. Specimens are pressed flat between absorbent paper and allowed to dry for two weeks before being mounted and labeled on stiff paper for identification and storage in a plant collection. Reproductive structures and labeling are important for accurate classification of each species. Proper preparation helps preserve specimens for scientific study.

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Rahimi Ruslan
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402 views3 pages

Herbarium Specimen Preparation

Herbarium specimens are prepared by carefully collecting representative parts of plants such as leaves, flowers, fruits, and bark. Key details about the plant's locality, habitat, and features are recorded. Specimens are pressed flat between absorbent paper and allowed to dry for two weeks before being mounted and labeled on stiff paper for identification and storage in a plant collection. Reproductive structures and labeling are important for accurate classification of each species. Proper preparation helps preserve specimens for scientific study.

Uploaded by

Rahimi Ruslan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Herbarium Specimen Preparation

Level
4

Key question
How should plant samples
be prepared for later
identification by a
herbarium or for display?

Key outcome
Identify features of plants
that determine their
classification into major
groups.

When collecting plant materials, enough information must be


recorded to permit classification of the specimen accurately.
Reproductive structures are important in classifying plant
species. The pieces collected must be typical of all plants of
that species in the area.

What you need


Absorbent paper, for example, paper towels
A4 envelopes or plastic bags to hold specimens
Sticky labels to mark bags
Plants to study (seaweeds or terrestrial)
Pen, paper

What you do
You can work in small groups to cover a dune or coastal
forested area (dont rip the plant out by the roots or break
whole branches off). Collect for each plant:
flowers seed pods, capsules, fruits
Adapted from Field notes for
Stradbroke Island, Rochedale

leaves (attached to stems so that you can identify


whether arrangement is opposite or alternate)
bark, if possible.

High School, Brisbane.

Record in the field on paper or sticky label:


the locality
type of environment
the habit (vine, herb, tree, shrub)
other special features.
Press immediately.
In the field, place the specimens between pieces of absorbent
paper and slide into an envelope in a folder for safe-keeping.
Seed pods, fruits etc. may be kept separately but must be
named appropriately so they can later be re-united accurately.

99

Herbarium Specimen Preparation


Take note to:
Avoid collecting on a wet day or after heavy dew. Get the driest sample possible.
Press evenly and flat.
Place leaves up the same way.
Press flowers so petals may be seen for shape, number, arrangement.
Label envelope or bag.

Drying specimens
Most specimens need to be pressed between several layers of paper (e.g. newspaper)
under a heavy weight for two or three weeks, or use a plant press. Change paper after two
weeks. If plants are wet, they may go mouldy and will have to be discarded. Keep labels
with plants. Old telephone books make convenient size plant presses.
If plants cannot be identified, the pressed specimens should be spot-glued onto white A4
stiff paper or cartridge paper, labelled with locality, habitat and date and forwarded to the
herbarium (in each capital city) for identification. There may be an identification charge if
you have many samples, though small numbers may be free.
After pressing, the specimens can be mounted on card in a folder to serve as a local field
guide (see Figure 1). They can be stored in plastic sleeves in folders (with their labels).

Remember!
Plants are precious! DO NOT DESTROY any plants. Collect material with great care so
as not to damage the specimen.

100

Herbarium Specimen Preparation


Figure 1. An example of a herbarium specimen which shows you how to mount your
specimen and display information about it

Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Angiospermopsida
Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Callistermon
Species: viminalis
Habitat: Dry sclerophyll
forest

branch

Location: Rochedale
Notes: Found at the edge
of the forest.
Date: May, 1987
Collector: E.X.Ample
seed cases

leaves

flower

101

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