Studying a plant sample in the Herbarium

In botany, a herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in alcohol or other preservative. The same term is often used in mycology to describe an equivalent collection of preserved fungi. Pinguicula grandiflora commonly known as a Butterwort Example of a cross section of a stem [1] Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ... For other uses, see Plant (disambiguation). ... Mycology (from the Greek μύκης, meaning fungus) is the study of fungi, their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy, and their use to humans as a source for tinder, medicinals (e. ... Divisions Chytridiomycota Zygomycota Ascomycota Basidiomycota The Fungi (singular: fungus) are a large group of organisms ranked as a kingdom within the Domain Eukaryota. ...

The term can also refer to the building where the specimens are stored, or the scientific institute that not only stores but researches these specimens. The specimens in a herbarium are often used as reference material in describing plant taxa; some specimens may be types. A taxon (plural taxa), or taxonomic unit, is a grouping of organisms (named or unnamed). ... In botanical nomenclature, a type (typus, nomenclatural type) is that element to which the name of a taxon is permanently attached . ...

Specimen preservation

Preparing a plant for mounting

To preserve their form and color, plants collected in the field are spread flat on sheets of newsprint and dried, usually in a plant press, between blotters or absorbent paper. The specimens, which are then mounted on sheets of stiff white paper, are labeled with all essential data, such as date and place found, description of the plant, altitude, and special habitat conditions. The sheet is then placed in a protective case. As a precaution against insect attack, the pressed plant is frozen or poisoned and the case disinfected.

Certain groups of plants are soft, bulky, or otherwise not amenable to drying and mounting on sheets. For these plants, other methods of preparation and storage may be used. For example, conifer cones and palm fronds may be stored in labeled boxes. Representative flowers or fruits may be pickled in formaldehyde to preserve their three-dimensional structure. Small specimens, such as mosses and lichens, are often air-dried and packaged in small paper envelopes. Mature female European Black Pine cone Male cones of a pine A cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta (conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. ... Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae or Palmae (also known by the name Palmaceae, which is taxonomically invalid. ... Formaldehyde is the chemical compound with the formula H2CO. It is the simplest aldehyde-- an organic compound containing a terminal carbonyl group: it consists of exactly one carbonyl. ... For other uses, see Moss (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Lichen (disambiguation). ...

No matter the method of preservation, detailed information on where and when the plant was collected, habitat, color (since it may fade over time), and the name of collector is usually included.

Collections management

A large herbarium may have hundreds of cases filled with specimens.

Most herbaria utilize a standard system of organizing their specimens into herbarium cases. Specimen sheets are stacked in groups by the species to which they belong and placed into a large lightweight folder that is labelled on the bottom edge. Groups of species folders are then placed together into larger, heavier folders by genus. The genus folders are then sorted by taxonomic family according to the standard system selected for use by the herbarium and placed into pigeonholes in herbarium cabinets. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x800, 207 KB) Beschreibung Description: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA Source: Own work Date: 2000 Author: Fritz Geller-Grimm Permission: CC-By-SA-2. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x800, 207 KB) Beschreibung Description: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA Source: Own work Date: 2000 Author: Fritz Geller-Grimm Permission: CC-By-SA-2. ... For other uses, see Species (disambiguation). ... Look up Folder in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Genus (disambiguation). ... The hierarchy of scientific classification In biological classification, family (Latin: familia, plural familiae) is a rank, or a taxon in that rank. ... Literally, a pigeonhole is a small hole in a loft, the nesting-place of a pigeon. ...

Locating a specimen filed in the herbarium requires knowing the nomenclature and classification used by the herbarium. It also requires familiarity with possible name changes that have occurred since the specimen was collected, since the specimen may be filed under an older name. Botanical nomenclature Plants are given formal names, governed by the ICBN. Within the limits set by the ICBN there is a separate set of rules, the ICNCP, for those plants in cultivation that require separate recognition, so-called cultivars. ... For other uses, see Scientific classification (disambiguation). ...

Modern herbaria often maintain electronic databases accessible via the Internet.

Uses

Herbaria are essential for the study of plant taxonomy, the study of geographic distributions, and the stabilizing of nomenclature. Thus it is desirable to include in a specimen as much of the plant as possible (e.g., flowers, stems, leaves, seed, and fruit). Linnaeus' herbarium now belongs to the Linnean Society in England. Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, describes, classifies and names plants. ... Carl Linnaeus, Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as  , (May 13, 1707[1] – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[2] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ...

Specimens housed in herbaria may be used to catalogue or identify the flora of an area. A large collection from a single area is used in writing a field guide or manual to aid in the identification of plants that grow there. With more specimens available, the author of the guide will better understand the variability of form in the plants and the natural distribution over which the plants grow. Simplified schematic of an islands flora - all its plant species, highlighted in boxes. ...

Herbaria also preserve an historical record of change in vegetation over time. In some cases, plants become extinct in one area, or may become extinct altogether. In such cases, specimens preserved in an herbarium can represent the only record of the plant's original distribution. Environmental scientists make use of such data to track changes in climate and human impact. Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants, and is, by far, the most abundant biotic element of the biosphere. ... For other uses, see Extinction (disambiguation). ...

Many kinds of scientists use herbaria to preserve voucher specimens; representative samples of plants used in a particular study to demonstrate precisely the source of their data.

Largest herbaria

The Swedish Museum of Natural History (S).

Many universities, museums, and botanical gardens maintain herbaria. Herbaria have also proven very useful as sources of plant DNA for use in taxonomy and molecular systematics. The largest herbaria in the world, in approximate order of decreasing size, are: The Swedish Museum of Natural History (in Swedish Naturhistoriska riksmuseet), in Stockholm, was founded in 1819 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but goes back to the collections acquired mostly through donations by the Academy since its foundation in 1739. ... The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a nucleic acid molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. ... It has been suggested that molecular phylogeny be merged into this article or section. ...

• Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (P) (Paris, France)
• New York Botanical Garden (NY) (Bronx, New York, USA)
• Komarov Botanical Institute (LE) (St. Petersburg, Russia)
• Royal Botanic Gardens (K) (Kew, England, UK)
• Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève (G) (Geneva, Switzerland)
• Missouri Botanical Garden (MO) (St. Louis, Missouri, USA)
• British Museum of Natural History (BM) (London, England, UK)
• Harvard University (HUH) (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
• Swedish Museum of Natural History (S) (Stockholm, Sweden)
• United States National Herbarium (Smithsonian Institution) (US) (Washington, DC, USA)
• Université Montpellier (MPU) (Montpellier, France)
• National Botanic Garden of Belgium (BR) (Meise, Belgium)
• University of Helsinki (H) (Helsinki, Finland)
• Nationaal Herbarium Nederland (L) (Leiden, the Netherlands)
• Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Zentraleinrichtung der Freien Universität Berlin (B) (Berlin, Germany)
• The Field Museum (F) (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
• University of Copenhagen (C) (Copenhagen, Denmark)
• University and Jepson Herbaria (UC/JEPS) (Berkeley, California, USA)

The Muséum national dHistoire naturelle (MNHN) is the French national museum of natural history. ... One of the premiere botanical gardens in the United States, the New York Botanical Garden [located at East 200th Street & Kazimiroff Boulevard] spans some 240 acres (1 km²) in the borough of The Bronx, in New York City. ... The Komarov Botanical Institute is the leading botanical institution in Russia. ... The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew are extensive gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond upon Thames and Kew in southwest London. ... Seiwa-en One of the Various Gardens at the Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located in St. ... The Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, has an ornate terracotta facade typical of high Victorian architecture. ... The Harvard University Herbaria (sometimes called The Botanical Museum) is a natural history museum devoted to botany. ... The Swedish Museum of Natural History (in Swedish Naturhistoriska riksmuseet), in Stockholm, was founded in 1819 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but goes back to the collections acquired mostly through donations by the Academy since its foundation in 1739. ... National Botanic Garden of Belgium is located in the domain of Bouchout (Château de Bouchout)in the village of Meise, north of Brussels. ... University of Helsinki is not to be confused with Helsinki University of Technology. ... The National Herbarium of the Netherlands was established in 1999 through a decentralized merger of the major university herbaria of Leiden (also known as the Rijksherbarium), Utrecht and Wageningen. ... Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago The Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex called known as the Museum Campus which includes Soldier Field, the football stadium that is the home of the Chicago... Main campus on Frue Plads. ...

See also

• Plant collecting
• Plant taxonomy
• Systematics
• Virtual Herbarium

Plant collecting refers to a hobby, in which the hobbyist takes identifiable samples of plant species found in nature, dries them, and stores them in a paper sheet album, a simple herbarium, alongside with the information of the finding location, finding date, etc. ... Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, describes, classifies and names plants. ... Biological systematics is the study of the diversity of life on the planet earth, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. ... In botany, a virtual herbarium is a web-based collection of digital images of preserved plants or plant parts. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Herbarium

• Index Herbariorum
• Linnean Herbarium
• Geneva Herbarium
• Hornsby Shire Council Herbarium
• Herbarium at Kew Gardens in London
• Herbarium at Cambridge
• University and Jepson Herbaria at the University of California, Berkeley
• Western Australian Herbarium
• Herbarium of toxic plants
• H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt Herbarium, Pretoria, South Africa
• Online Herbarium

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