08/11/2019
MAKING A HERBARIUM
CONCEPT
Human use trees and plants in almost every aspect of their life: for food, shelter, clothing, energy, decorative purpose, religious ceremonies and even in death. In addition, trees are also used widely for medicinal purposes. The medical system Ayurveda is consider the earliest source on medicinal plants in whivh the properties of drugs and their uses are given in detail.
Purpose
there are many trees that are found around homes and communities whivh have medicinal as well as other values. Its is impoprtant that we learn, undersand and appreciate them for their immense benefit to our lives. The purpose of the activity is to make students develop famlarity towards the trees round them, learn to make herbariums for proper identity, storage and information about the tree life around one's locality, research area, etc. Luca Ghini was the botanist to be credited as the inventor of the herbarium in mid 1550s.
Resources and Materials
1. Plant cutter
2. Herbarium (Chart paper), identification labels, tags.
3. Cello Tape
4. Paper bags
5. Herbarium press
6. Blotting paper
7. Old Newspapers
8. Resource book on identification of trees
Activity and Procedure
The procedure can be divided simply into three important major steps- collecting, dying and mounting. Amost all locations are suitable for herbarium collection. It can be yours school compound, school locality, home, forests, gardens, etc. However, one has to respect the owner of the land and also make sure the collection will not hamper the plants and trees there in a massive amount. It is best to pick trees that seems quite dry, and lacking surface moisture thus rainy days and early mornings are to be avoided including afternoons.
Collection
1. With the help of plan cutter, cut small branches of trees with leaves that appear free from disease and insects. Flower is one of the most important feature of the plant for herbarium collection thus its better if flowers are available.
2. All specimens should be tagged and if you know its common name write its name.
3. Make notes in an observation book about the date, location, the color of the flower and fruits and other information that you may find interesting. Draw the tree's size and shape so that you can remember it later on too.
Drying
1. Create a folder using old newspaper bundles. Gently spread the plant specimens into the sheets of the newspaper making sure both sides of the leaves are seen and there are no overlaps. Every plant specimen should have paper on both the sides. Then put some heavy weight on the folder.
2. Leave it overnight or several days, depending on the kind of specimen, change the newspaper every day, until the specimens are light and dry.
Mounting
1. Prepare herbarium sheets made out of hard white blank paper or chart paper. A herbarium measure 27.94 cm x 43.18 cm in size.
2. Tape the stems of the dried specimen onto the herbarium sheets and leave the delicate parts like flower, fruits and seeds free. Make sure both sides of leaves are shown.
3. All mounted specimen needs to be labeled. Prepare a label with the scientific name , your name, date and location of collection, the color of the flower and fruits on the bottom right of the herbarium sheets.
This completes the making of herbarium. They need to be maintained carefully. Silverfish and other insects could degrade them thus you can dter them by using repellents or keeping dried cloves or dried berries of xanthoxylum armatum (timur in nepali) with the herbariums.
