Herbarium Techniques

Concept, Types, Voucher Preparation,

Issues, Uses and Benefits
Herbarium Techniques

History and Basics

 Herbarium Techniques
Herbarium definition
• The term “herbarium” is derived from
the Latin words “herba” (plant) and
“rium” (repository) or “collection.”
• Thus, herbarium is a “collection of
preserved plant specimens” used for
scientific study, research, and
education.
• Typically, the specimens are dried,
pressed, and mounted on archival
paper before being stored in
specialized cabinets or drawers.
 Herbarium Techniques
Historic perspective
• The first herbarium of world has founded in 1545 in the University
of Padua, Italy
• In the world there are about one thousand five hundred
recognized herbaria, besides many smaller herbaria with
institutions, universities, pharmacies etc.
• Originally, the word "herbarium" referred to books about
medicinal plants.
• In 1700 French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort used the
word herbarium to describe a collection of dried plants and Carl
Linnaeus continued to use this term in his work
Herbarium Techniques
Historic herbaria of the world
 Herbarium Techniques
Research studies on herbaria: Past to present

BioScience, 69:812–822, 2019: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz094

Herbarium Techniques

Herbarium Types
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Kinds of herbaria
The kinds of herbaria depend upon the contents, purpose, region/
place, plant groups – present in these:
• The herbaria of medicinal plants
• The herbaria include specimens of plants of known medicinal value
or supposed to have medicinal properties.
• Herbaria of weeds
• The herbaria have weeds of cultivated fields and waste places.
• Regional herbaria
• The herbaria of a particular region or place e.g., Herbarium of Arid
Zone circle, Temperate zones, Tropical regions etc
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Preparation of Herbarium
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of Herbarium
Following protocols are important to prepare the
herbaria
a) Selection and collection of materials
b) Equipment used
c) Record on the voucher books
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of Herbarium
a) Selection and collection of materials
• Collected plant species must have flowers and fruits (if
present) for their proper identification.
• The herbaceous plants should be collected with
underground parts but for shrubs and trees, a small twig
should be collected (size should be up to 25 cm).
• The collected materials should healthy and free from
disease attack
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Equipment Used
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Preparation of Herbarium
b) Equipment used
1. Secateur:
This is useful for cutting the
twigs of shrubs and trees for
herbarium specimens
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of Herbarium
b) Equipment used
2. Digger:
The digger is used to take out
the important underground
part of the plants like rhizome,
bulb, corn etc. which may serve
as important diagnostic
characteristics
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of
Herbarium
b) Equipment used
3. Pruning shear:
The pruning shears are
useful to collect the twig
from tall trees
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of Herbarium
b) Equipment used
4. Vasculum:
An elongated container with
oval ends generally made of
aluminium or tin, used to keep
the collected specimens fresh
for a long time
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of
herbarium
b) Equipment used
5. Magnifying lens:
Sometimes a hand lens
is required to observe
some characteristics of
the plant in the field
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of herbarium
b) Equipment used

6. Plant press:
• The plant press consists of a frame (typically
wooden, for rigidity), corrugated cardboard
ventilators (to allow air to flow through the
press and as structure to flatten the plants),
blotter paper (to absorb moisture), and
folded paper (typically a fold of newspaper
to contain the plant material).
• The plant press is tightened using straps with
buckles or bolts with wing nuts. (cont’d …)
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of herbarium
b) Equipment used

6. Plant press:
• The objective of pressing plants is
to preserve the morphological
integrity of the plant, while
quickly but gently removing
moisture to yield material that
can be easily mounted on
herbarium paper for long-term
storage and subsequent research
applications.
 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of herbarium
b) Equipment used
7. Photographic equipment:
Where preparation of
herbarium is difficult and
unsuitable then this method is
helpful, photographs of plants
are also important.
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Preparation of Voucher Books

 Herbarium Techniques
Preparation of herbarium
c) Record on voucher books
• The voucher book usually contains 100 pages each.
• The numbers are maintained serially i.e. from 1-
100 and the second book should start with 101
and ends in 200.
• The voucher book should be printed with the
information (cont’d…)
 Herbarium Techniques
Steps for preparation of herbarium voucher
Once the plant specimens are collected, the next steps
are:
• Pressing of specimens for drying: But before
pressing the plant material should be cleaned from
dust
• Poisoning: The dried plants are then poisoned by
dipping in a saturated solution of mercuric chloride
in ethanol or in rectified spirit
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Steps for preparation of herbarium voucher
Once the plant specimens are collected, the next steps are:
• Mounting: The dry poisoned plants are then mounted
on a comparatively hard sheet of paper 42 cm × 29 cm.
The mounting is done by gum or cellophane tape. Gum
is applied with the help of a brush
• Labelling: A label is a rectangular piece of paper of
usually 12 cm × 10 cm or 11 cm × 7 cm, pasted at the
lower right of the herbarium sheet
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Preparation of herbarium
voucher
c) Record on voucher books
• 1. Place of collection.
• 2. Field no.
• 3. Date of collection
• 4. Locality
• 5. Altitude
• 6. Habit
• 7. Name of collector
• 8. Botanical name
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Herbarium Voucher Storage

 Herbarium Techniques
Storage of herbarium books
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Specimen Types in Herbaria

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Types of specimens
• Pressed and dried:
• Vascular plant (flowering plants, conifers, ferns) specimens are
pressed and dried plants that are mounted on herbarium sheets.
• Dried:
• Small bryophytes (mosses, hepatics or liverworts, and hornworts)
are dried and placed loose in folded packets. The label is glued on
the front of the packet and the packets are filed loosely in boxes,
glued to sheets of mounting paper, or placed loosely in folders
 Herbarium Techniques
Types of specimens
• Stored in fluid:
• Preserved material can be
kept in a glass jar filled with
preservative fluid. By storing
this way, the botanical
specimens are maintained in a
usable condition by inhibiting
enzymatic and microbial
attack.
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Types of specimens
• Microscope slides:
• Specimens can be mounted on microscope slides for short term
storage, however, there is a greater risk of rapid deterioration from
contracting, darkening, or crystallizing specimens. Slides should be
checked on an annual basis to check the condition of preserved
specimens
• Desiccants and freeze-drying:
• Silica gel or freeze-drying methods can be applied to specimens that
require preservation of the shape of a delicate organ such as a flower.
Disadvantages of this technique are that the specimen is especially
fragile and lacks support. Acid-free tissue is often used for storage.
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Risks and Threats to Herbarium

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Agents of deterioration of herbarium
• Physical forces (e.g., light, temperature, humidity,
pollutants etc.)
• Disaster recovery (Water damage resulting from
flooding can result in shrinking, distortion, or
staining of plant materials)
• Pests (Common herbarium pests include silverfish,
book lice (psocids), tobacco beetles (Lasioderma),
dermestids, drugstore beetles
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Agents of deterioration of herbarium
• Fungal attack (may be due to incomplete drying of
specimens, either during the specimen preparation process
or afterward, or in collections that become wet later
through rain or flood)
• Theft (theft is prevented by maintaining limited access to
where collections are stored
• Disassociation (Ensuring that every specimen has an
individual accession number will reduce the risk of
disassociation)
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Functions, Uses and Benefits of

Herbarium
 Herbarium Techniques
Functions of herbarium
• Conservatory of material and data
• The herbarium is a storehouse of plant materials with valuable
data mentioned on their labels. The material in the herbarium
remains as permanent record of flora of those regions even
the natural topography and the vegetation have changed or
extinct. In these the herbarium provide evidence of what once
existed.
• They provide a record of the diversity of plant life on Earth, as
well as information about the distribution and ecology of
different species.
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Functions of herbarium
• Role in teaching and research
• Herbarium acts as an aid in teaching botany to degree
and post-graduate students. While teaching a teacher
can show herbarium specimens if fresh material is not
available at the time of giving the course.
• They are used in classrooms and museums to teach
people about the importance of plants in our lives, and to
inspire future generations of scientists and
conservationists.
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Conclusions
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Conclusions
• Herbaria are collections of preserved plant
specimens that play a crucial role in plant
identification, research, and conservation.
• Cladistic analysis of herbarium specimens allows for
the development of phylogenetic trees that help
scientists better understand the relationships
between different plant species.
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Conclusions
• They serve as a permanent record of the Earth’s
flora, providing invaluable data for studying plant
diversity, evolution, and biogeography.
• Some notable examples of herbaria include the New
York Botanical Garden Herbarium and the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew.
• Despite their similarities, herbaria can differ in terms
of their size, scope, and focus.