I am starting to press plants for an herbarium, and I have a few questions as I get started, and wanted to ask fellow naturalists who have done this before. Google has given me mediocre help so far, and I would like my herbarium to last as long as possible. Can I laminate my leaves? Or does the h…

perhaps I should have said “in controlled conditions”. I’m also very concerned about some herbaria in Venezuela. tropical herbaria have it tougher even in ideal times, but any disruption to the buildings they’re housed in can be disastrous. [image] choess: I’ll be rocking in the corner, nervous…

I’ll add to the chorus of people suggesting you visit a good herbarium. Last week, I got to participate in a work day at the New England Botanical Club herbarium and get a tour of the Farwell Herbarium, both at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the US. I was impressed with the enorm…

[image] giannamaria: I would like my herbarium to last as long as possible i think a big question is why you want to make a collection and also who it’s for. if it’s just for you on the scale of a few decades, honestly, you can press your plants almost any way, and it should work just fine as…

[image] lynnharper: start a digital database for your specimens, too What would you recommend for that? Just an excel file? [image] pisum: i think a big question is why you want to make a collection and also who it’s for. Mostly for my own enjoyment, but I do want to make it properly …

I use an Excel spreadsheet for my bryophyte specimens I collect, but other botanists use fancier database programs. I don’t know which database programs, though. I use Excel because it’s simple and learning how to ID mosses and liverworts is hard enough!

Have you considered volunteering for an existing herbarium? They’re usually in need of people to process and mount existing specimens, as well as collecting target species. They’ll likely train you on the correct way to collect, record, process, and mount specimens, too (harder than it looks - I use…

[image] giannamaria: That way, I can donate it instead of just throwing it away, which I feel would be a waste. just to set expectations, i haven’t heard of many cases of herbaria accepting material from individuals, unless they were significant collections in some way. (each specimen would n…

For what it’s worth, I’m an individual who just donated specimens, so maybe it depends on the herbarium? I would certainly ask long before you donate the specimens; the herbarium may or may not want specimens mounted, for example.

it’s extremely common in my experience for herbaria to accept specimens from individual collectors, but it depends on the focus of the institution. MOR (The Morton Arboretum) “specialises” on Chicago-region plants… so any plants from the Chicago region are fair game. you just have to find the right …

Starting an Herbarium, Any Tips?

Nature Talk

jasonhernandez74 April 9, 2025, 9:13pm 22

There was some discussion of herbaria in this thread: When you no longer want your accumulated nature stuff - Nature Talk - iNaturalist Community Forum

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Starting an Herbarium, Any Tips?

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