ORISSA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

TECHNOLOGY
THE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY, BHUBANESWAR

ASSIGNMENT: HERBARIUM

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. SMITHA GOPALAKRISHNAN NAIR

SUBMITTED BY: AUROPRSAD DAS
ADM. NO: 201710013
1st Year, 1st SEMESTER, B.SC. FORESTRY

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am over helmed in all humbleness and gratefulness to acknowledge my depth to all those
who have helped me to put these ideas, well above the level of simplicity and into something
concrete.
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Prof. Smitha
Gopalakrishnan Nair mam, who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project
on the topic HERBARIUM, which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know
about so many new things. I am really thankful to her.
Any attempt at any level can ‘t be satisfactorily completed without the support and guidance
of MY parents and friends.
I would like to thank my friends who helped me a lot in gathering different information,
collecting data and guiding me from time to time in making this project, despite of their busy
schedules, they gave me different ideas in making this project unique.

Date: 09.7.2021 Name: Auroprasad Das

Place: Bhubaneswar Adm. No: 201710013

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Herbarium
A herbarium is a storehouse of plant specimens which are collected, dried and mounted
on handmade paper sheets. They will be arranged in plant families recognized system of
classification and kept in pigeon holes of steel or wooden cup boards and maintained carefully
for current and future studies. It is a reference material for naming, identification and
classification of the plants. The herbaria are indexed with unique codes in the “Index
Herbarium” presently assigned and maintained by New York Botanical Garden herbarium. Also
the non-vascular plant specimens (algae, certain fungi, lichens, bryophytes and certain
pteridophytes) can be fixed in FAA fixative and bring to the herbarium for identification and
voucher specimen number. The article also informed the merits of the “Plant Specimen
Preparation Kit” from Nihon Vogue-Sha, Japan for use of specimens’ preparation both vascular
and non-vascular plants where there is no involvement of chemicals and harsh environmental
conditions. Since the identification and voucher specimen number is essential in these days for
research as well as for publications, here we are presenting useful information.

Collection preparation preservation of herbarium specimens

The preparation of the specimens was followed by methods stated in Lawrence (1967), Jones
and Luchinger (1987), Anonymous (1996) and Manilal and Kumar (1998).

i) Collection:
The specimen material (plants) which you are interested in should be collected as
whole (if they are herbs) or part of plant along with flowers and fruits/carpels Before putting
your specimens in the collection bag, you should carefully remove all the insects, spider-webs
and foreign bodies attached to your specimens. Then the specimens mounted in 42 cm x 29 cm
(16 ½” x 11 ½”) size blotting paper. If the plant specimen larger than the specimen blotting
paper they can mounted in V or N or M shape to accommodate the entire plant material in
above size. Also, the leaves mounted in dorsiventral position. The half-size of the regular
newspaper can fit this size and economical! Put the mounted specimens in between
cardboards/wooden-frames.
A well-designed field notebook has numbered sheets in printed form with standard pro-forma
for entering field data. Usually, a field note book has 100 leaves and the pages are serially
numbered (called field numbers) to be suffixed to the collector’s name, when cited.

ii) Poisoning and drying the specimen:

Poisoning kills the plants and prevents the formation of abscission layer and thereby
the leaves, flowers and fruits will be intact with the specimen (twig) will not be getting
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detached from the plant. The poisoning is generally done by dipping the whole plant in a
saturated solution of mercuric chloride in ethyl alcohol (usually 20 gm in a litre of alcohol). The
plant is again put between the blotters in the presser till it gets completely dried. Mercuric
chloride is corrosive for metals, and hence enamel trays and disposable gloves are used. Lauryl
Pentachloro-phenate (LPCP) is also used (3.75% in white spirit) for poisoning the specimens. It
is safer than mercuric chloride and leaves the plant features more intact. The solution can also
be applied to mounted specimens by spraying. Then, the specimens are spread out for pressing
and drying. It is important that the plants are put under sufficient pressure; otherwise more
time will be required to achieve a good desiccation, besides they could be damaged by
dampness and moulds. Every specimen in the press must be linked with the data in the field
note book. Detailed notes should be entered in the field note book at the time of collection in
the field itself. The best one can do is to use a tag for each specimen. Bulky plant parts can
directly be placed in contact with corrugated material to speed up drying. Instead of blotting
paper we can use newspapers, which are cheap and readily available. Once a specimen has
become dry and stiff, it is ready for mounting.
Cacti, succulent and tuberous/bulbose plants can be cut their stems, and leaves into transverse
and longitudinal sections to observe their morphology. These plants should be poisoned longer-
time to completely kill the specimens. Also they can also the softening of the cactus can be
aided by the immersion in boiling water for half a minute, taking care of avoiding the
immersion of the flowers. Instead of boiling, one can employ dilute acetic acid or strong alcohol
or formalin (1.5 parts formalin, 1 part water). Some plants have tubers or bulbs and they must
be treated before drying.

iii) Mounting and labelling:

The dried plant specimens are now ready for mounting on herbarium sheets. Fixing the
processed plant specimen on herbarium sheet is called mounting. A standard herbarium sheet
is 28 cm (breadth) x 42 cm (length) and usually made up of heavy long-lasting white handmade
paper or thick sheet (Figure 11). The sheet is usually stiff and flexible so as to prevent damage
during the handling of mounted specimens. The common technique is pasting specimens to
sheet with natural glue (usually Gum Arabic). Small quantity of copper sulphate or thymol
crystals or may be added to the glue as insect repellent. It is advised to have a paper bag/pouch
attach to the herbarium sheet to keep any seed/fragments detached from the specimens
(Figure 11). Now the herbarium specimen sheet pasted with a label usually at the right side
bottom corner.
The herbarium specimen sheet is now ready for deposition/reposition in the one of the indexed
herbaria for the plant identification as well as to acquire a “Voucher Specimen” number.
The non-vascular plant specimens (algae, certain fungi, lichens, bryophytes and certain
pteridophyptes) either dried or can be fixed in FAA fixative [Formalin-Acetic Acid–Alcohol in the
ratio of 50% ~ 70% Ethanol (90 ml), Glacial Acetic Acid (99.6%) 5 ml and Formaldehyde (38%) 5

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ml] and bring to the herbarium (Lawrence, 1967; Anonymous, 1996). Further if you have any
inquiry can contact the Curator or Prof-in-charge of the herbarium.

Why is it important to preserve specimens in herbarium?

. Plants specimens are permanently preserved in herbaria, and hence they are the major
sources of information about plant diversity and vegetation.

. A representation of all species of a genus, or all the genera of a family may be gathered from
the herbarium.

. Preserved plant specimens of herbaria are used in almost all types of taxonomic research
programmes of fundamental as well as applied nature.

. The classification of the world’s flora is based mainly on the herbarium specimens.
. A list of the endangered species of any region may be prepared after herbarium consultation.
. A list of the plant species with their medicinal as well as other ethnobotanical values may be
prepared after herbarium consultation. A herbarium preserves national plant wealth including
type material.

. Limited individual collections are identified only with the help of herbaria.
. Monographs of genera or families are prepared only after the study of herbarium specimens.
. A herbarium can give knowledge about the distribution and occurrence of plant species.
. Big herbaria organise training courses for young generation and thus provide job
opportunities to young workers.

.Herbarium material is used in studying the palynology, anatomy and chemical aspects of
desired plants.

. Herbaria provide loan of specimens for study at other institutions.

. Herbaria provide scientific information to the public regarding the plants.
Herbarium Ethics
. Herbaria provide us with policy statements including such information as 1) filing
arrangements, 2) re-shelving, 3) loan procedures, 4) annotation labels and 5) use of library

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collections. You should strictly adhere to the policy statements. If specimens are dry and fragile,
mount them on paper that is flexible and keep these sheets flat. Lift these folders carefully one
at a time and avoid placing of heavy objects like elbows, books, coffee cups etc. on specimens.
Use long armed microscope while studying specimens and avoid bending the sheet. If
specimens are damaged keep them aside and inform curator immediately. Do not dissect or
remove flowers and fruits from the specimens, as they form the important organs of specimens
using which specimens are easily identified.

Important Herbaria of World and India

You have already learnt that the herbarium is a place where dried and mounted specimens are
stored according to any recognized system of classification. Special attention is paid towards
the protection of all specimens (including type specimens) from all sorts of insects, dust,
moisture and other external injuries. Herbaria (Fig. 12.4) provide information about collected
plants in various forms viz. recorded notes, photographs and hand drawn designs. Herbaria are
associated with Botanic Gardens and other Institutions such as Universities.
For your information some important herbaria are mentioned below:

1) Herbarium of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK.

2) Herbarium of British Museum of Natural History, London, UK.

3) Herbarium of New York Botanical Garden, New York, U.S.A.

4) Herbarium of Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, U.S.A

5) Herbarium of Museum National d’ Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France,

6) Herbarium of Komarov Botanical Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia,

7) Central National Herbarium (Herbarium of Indian Botanic Garden, (earlier called Calcutta
Herbarium), Howrah, India.

8) Herbarium of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India.

9) Southern Circle Herbarium of BSI, (earlier called the Madras Herbarium) Coimbatore, India.

10) Western Circle Herbarium, of BSI, Pune (Poona), India.

11) Eastern Circle Herbarium, of BSI, Shillong, (earlier called the Assam Herbarium) Meghalaya,
India.

12) Herbarium of National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India.

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13) Herbarium of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

Table12.1: Name of Abbreviated Approx. No. of

Some large Herbaria name specimens
herbaria of the
world. SI. No
Herbarium of K 7 million
1. Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew,
England
British Museum BM 6 million
2. of Natural
History, London
Museum of P 6 .8 million
3. Natural History,
Paris
Azerbaijan BAK 6 million
4. National
Academy of
Science of Baku,
Azerbaijan
New York NY 7.8 million
5. Botanic Garden
Herbarium
US National US 4.5 million
6. Herbarium,
Washington D.C.
Herbarium of MO 6.6 million
7. Missouri
Botanical Garden
St. Louis
Central National CAL 2 million
8. Herbarium,
Kolkata (earlier
known as the
Calcutta
Herbarium)
Gray Herbarium GH 2 million
9. of Harvard
University,
Cambridge
Royal Botanic E 3 million
10. Gardens,
Edinburgh
National MEL 1.5 million
11. Herbarium of
Victoria,
Melbourne,
Australia
Herbarium of the DD 3.3 lakh
12. Forest Research
Institute,
Dehradun
Madras MH 2.6 lakhs

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13. Herbarium,
Coimbatore
Herbarium of the LWG 2.6 lakhs
14. National
Botanical
Research
Institute,
Lucknow
Herbarium of the BSA 69 thousand
15. BSI, Allahabad

Herbarium of the BSD 86 thousand

16. BSI, Dehradun

Herbarium of the ASSAM 20 thousand

17. BSI, Shillong

Herbarium of the BSI 1.7 lakhs

18. BSI, Pune

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THANK YOU

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