Overview of a Herbarium

This is my 2nd post on Botanical Science and as I told on my previous post I would be shedding some light about Herbarium.

So what is Herbarium?

If I have to give a textbook answer to it. A Herbarium is a place where preserved plants are collected and stored in a controlled environment. In these Herbarium various Herbarium Sheets are stored and catalogued and arranged systematically for all professionals and also for aspiring students to learns about various properties of certain plant.

In some other fashion it can also be said that Herbarium is the place where we can find the Birth certificate of Plants which helps them identify a certain species.

Plant identification is done on a variety of steps which includes their Family, Genus, Species and so on. So these Herbarium play a critical role in the life of your average Botanist.

Some Famous Herbarium Around the World

• Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France)
• New York Botanical Garden (Bronx, New York, USA)
• Komarov Botanical Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia)
• Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew, England, UK)
• Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques de la Ville de Geneve (Geneva, Switzerland)
• Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, Missouri, USA)
• British Museum of Natural History (London, England, UK)
• Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
• Swedish Museum of Natural History (Stockholm, Sweden)
• United States National Herbarium (Washington, DC, USA)

Now you must be thinking what is the use of these Herbarium. Let me explain it a bit.

If you need to study a Flower which specifically grows in the Himalayas would you climb the Himalayan belt to do that. I guess you won't. This is where the role of Herbarium kicks in. Herbarium has already stored that flower in a Sheet of Paper for you to study that. So it becomes quite convenient to study any plant or flower regardless the place I stay in. Further in special collections of Herbarium there lies some Plants which have gone extinct which are only available to you if you are doing research on that plant particularly. This way we could research even the past.

Techniques for Making a Herbarium Sheet

There are various fancy ways by which you can make your own Herbarium Sheet at home but I am going to tell you the most basic techniques that we students used.
Basically if a plant is pressed hard without getting sunlight, water or any dampness it will turn into a nice specimen for Herbarium.

So take a Fern and put it inside a large book make sure the Book is wide enough to cover all parts of the plant. Then press it softly and leave it under your bed for about two days. Your specimen is all ready. Now carefully apply some Him on one of the sides of the plant and paste it on a Herbarium Sheet or you can go the fancy way and use a Glass Sheet and hang it on your drawing room.

Picture of Fern on a Herbarium Sheet

Picture of Fern on a Glass Sheet

Doesn't this one look pretty.

So this is all for today I will be explaining about Botanical Gardens in my next post I hope you guys would enjoy it.

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PS : The first picture in this post has been taken from the internet and I personally have no rights to it.

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