Herbarium : 19 posts by 7 authors. This is an unusual request to all of you. I was thinking of making a herbarium of local plants this summer with my son and daughter. What do I need to make a professional herbarium–something which can be useful in gaining further insights later? Since I have no previous experience, please guide with basics such as materials, process etc. I will be grateful for any insights. May I know why you wish to make herbarium specimens and where do you live? You want to make herbarium specimen to dry for posterity for science or //and for making botanical art pieces for framing ( you have a rich fern population they make great art pieces) Its not at all difficult and get any many different ones to show the natural variation that nay be in any given wild population so they would be your erial number xyz folowed by a b c d etc otr small i, ii, iii iv etc other wise a mess follows Also its a fun thing for children to learn and this site says its not rocket science , I love that sentiment and who knows its pure bliss when what you love becomes your professional calling…. some very good instructions are on the net , at utube from a herbal site I looked at these s RBGE utubes before hitting the send button, its really quite complete as far as demos go… Read up some in writing… one recent one i see is a pdf … and a blog ONE thing a professor at BHU had told me that in india one perhaps needs to rinse out and dry the specimen in some sort of alcohol solution or potassium permanganate to deter the fungi that grow.. before putting them in newspapers for pressing, i tried it once but … how does one know that i had killed off all spores etc…also a theoretical problem with that is flowers will wither etc,and chemical analysis later may be interfered with, I donot know exactly what folks do in India… ask … then for permanent mounting and saving …getting supplies to be acid free and all those tapes labels envelopes that see thru for small items or fallen flowers or seeds etc, if you want to make it like at the NYBG or MOBOT you would have to get your relatives to ship them to you do some search, many years ago I had found some sites that had catalogs for botanical herbarium making and also they had library related acid free supplies… BSI at Kolkata does a course of herbarium making at some campus in salt lake you could ask Tapas da My point was a bit different? There is no point making herbarium collections just for fun and for hobby. I am sorry but I dont know your background properly and neither do I know your location. If I had known your location then I would have suggested the name of nearest herbarium from your place which you can visit to study specimens if you need. Some people so specimen collections for fun and infact there are some rare species which are going extinct, for example Panchmarhi is a favorite destination for botany students, and they go every year in team and every year they collect same plants and some rare species, just to prepare report for their degree course. To me its WRONG !!! But its my personal view. …, Point well written and taken on my part May be you should take it up with botany departments at colleges and universities and conservation agencies and the environmental departments you are passionate about it good luck I’ll let … tell you what you asked Based on all the cases he has been showing here I personally dont think Ashwini had any such notion as decimating plants you are thinking of… but still its a good notion to sound the alarm we all will pay heed to your sentiments. I am sure… When are you going to show us some more of your orchids Thank you Didi for those interesting links, something novel to me. At the same time I also subscribe to the conservation view. Thank you … for your advice and comments. …, I live in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of about 1700-1800m and study plants, birds, butterflies and moths as a hobby. I have mixed aims in starting and maintaining a herbarium: I want to collect plants to study them in greater depth than merely photographing them allows. I have been uprooting some plants in any case to have a closer look and to photograph them in better conditions and to look under a microscope, so why not preserve them and keep them available for future reference. I will not deny the fun element. I began studying them in the first place because of the joy it afforded me. Also as an activity with children it will combine hours of fun with study and hopefully will instil in them a degree of concern for nature. But you have raised valid points in asking the purpose of such a project. First, I feel not enough is done to study the plants of my area and hence any careful collection will set a basis for present/future studies. Second, photographs of a specimen are not always enough to correctly identify and leave room for further more detailed investigations. Third, an actual plant helps me look closer and study features that I either overlook in the field or fail to study properly. As a rule if I do not see several specimens of the same plant, I DO NOT collect a specimen. This way even if I inadvertently take a rare plant, I can be sure that I am not destroying the only existing sample. Furthermore, by bringing attention of the experts on this group to a rare species, wherever encountered, I hope to help save/revive the plant with expert advice. Since I have not yet embarked on a collection, I welcome your views on this matter further. Herbarium specimen for clearcut identity of any plant is highly indispensable. The dreawings and photographs can not tell you the desired details which the preserved specimen in a recognised herbarium with all field details appended in the Herb. label on the mounted sheet.We had surveyed Dharamsala area long back in 1971 and published account of medicinal plants of Dharasala Forest circle.I have endeavoured to establish herbarium & Museum st Ayurvedic Research Institute Jogindernagar where I served as Asst Botanist & Botanist since 1969 to !986 before being invited by the Dr YSP ,UH&F Nauni Solanto lead the researches on Medicinal plants.In the University too, A good Herbarium has been established with collection from all over Himachal Pradesh till my retirement as Prof & Head,Forest Products in March,2010. If you can spare a couple of days you should visit Nauni,Solan to get first hand details.If required you can put a call to me and I shall arrange for your visit and stay in University campus. that sounds wonderful Thank you … I have your excellent work on the medicinal plants and refer to it regularly. Your kind offer to arrange my visit/stay at the university campus at Solan is very inviting and one day when I am ready to do justice to such a visit, I will request your help. So there you have it … … response should help the quiet the fears but do tell us and … what not to uproot it would help us all and would be an asset here in the database … Conservation notions are wonderful but it has its place elsewhere uprooting weeds is a necessity… when it gets in my spinach and salads bed.. not all ruellia are harmless, some are outright poisonous… am i going to take a chance of kids eating those leaves along with my lettuce or young spinach or rocket leaves? uprooting the weeds to clean up the garden/ lawn and while I am at it am going to make a set of dried/pressed specimen… i dont see any harm in that!!! Some good links are already there in … response. … makes a nice point but i differ in one aspect… I feel if you so desire, go ahead.. … has made a useful suggestion and if you make it the way the teacher in the Herb link is doing 1 and 2 and I would get a pesticide company to put a couple of dots of their cream they use for silver fish, i get them to do the dots on a piece of wooden circles // coasters i dont use to stick in boxes where i have old books etc i want to protect from white fish your herbarium may be safe anyway Do cockroaches and those pesty grain insects attack stuff in your kitchen??then you need to protect your collection its when you come down later to the gangetic plains etc you’ll have a lot more problems but I dont see why you cant start and see how it goes and how you deal with the laborious process start with your ferns i would love to see these two years down the line OLD VEDIC trick of keeping palm leaf manuscripts may be worth remembering old temples bind these tightly in 100% cotton khadi dyed red… for some reason it has to be red but i do follow this following one, I learnt it from some old Ayurvedic doctors .. in spring when the leaves have just become nice lush green and juicy ie mature the bitter neem leaves twigs a few every so often in the leaves of the books keeps insects away and the leaves for some reason donot stain the leaves ..not enough tannin I guess where as some mehendi leaves left similarly stained my book horribly but for preservation this neem leaf trick has worked in a couple of different climate types including hot and humid gangetic plain… anyway… start.. all that will happen is you’ll have fun some successes and have fun (just dont pick//uproot rare stuff or what Pankaj tells you not to pick)) and who knows? may be a second career I do not know if you get all emails from indiatreepix so am sending this to you again Attachments area Preview YouTube video How to Make an Herb Press and an Herbarium, Part 1 Preview YouTube video How to Make an Herb Press and an Herbarium, Part 2 Thank you … for forwarding me … email and for the additional advice. I do not subscribe to all emails and would have missed Dr Rawat’s reply if not for you. Thank you Dr Rawat. I am beginning to appreciate the difficulties involved (and a little more tickled because of it). I am prepared to give it a go and learn along the way. I will make sure to heed Pankaj ji’s caution. I have already got such valuable advice that the job is made a little easier and I will keep on seeking your help when I hit an obstacle. I will also keep documenting what I see on camera and build a virtual database. I do not have cockroaches at home and have rarely got silverfish but naphthalene balls and neem leaves should be good. Ushadi had pointed to some excellent videos and I got a ton of useful information the previous evening. I will keep you updated on my progress, however slow… I thought this thread talked of rare species, Didi.no, … it is about herbarium making from start In this thread I placed the word “conservation” only after the concern regarding rare species was raised (following your 1st reply mail), Didi |
Making Herbarium- Pros & Cons
Updated on December 24, 2024