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Herbarium

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A herbarium (plural herbaria) is a collection of dried plants that have been carefully preserved. Herbaria date back to the 16th century. The building that contains the specimens can also be called a herbarium. A notable herbarium is the one at Harvard University. The collection contains about 5 million dried plants and fungal specimens. But herbaria do not have to be physical specimens kept in a building. There are many virtual or online herbaria. These are digital images of the preserved plant displayed on the Internet. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, with nearly 50,000 specimens online, is an example of a virtual herbarium. Impatiens glanduliferais an example of what a possible entry in a herbarium would look like.

A famous herbarium contains entries collected by Meriwether Lewis, the President's Botanist. The specimens were collected as Lewis and Clark crossed the American West. The herbarium is now housed in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, PA, but you don't have to go to Philadelphia to see them. Digital images of the specimens collected by Lewis and Clark are available on the web. Another historical herbarium is housed in the Department of Botany in the Natural History Museum, London UK. Sir Hans Sloane collected the specimens during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A portion of the collection has been digitized and is available online.

What possible use could a herbarium have? Well, 100 uses for a herbarium lists 72 uses. A herbarium can be used for research, in education and to preserve the past.

Want to make your own herbarium? Check out Botantists in Training.

The younger collector may enjoy making an algal herbarium.

Herbarium gives detailed instructions on how to create your own.

How to collect, press and mount plants also gives instruction for preserving plants.

How to make a wildflower collection gives directions for collection and preserving wildflowers in your area.

How to make a plant collection shows how to label specimens.

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