Pressing plant specimens

After we have collected the plant specimens in the field, we have to preserve the ones that are going to the herbaria in Melbourne and Sydney. The group also has its own reference collection, and each artist keeps a pressing of the plant she is painting.

The plants are preserved by pressing. We are conscious that herbaria are short of resources and space and only want quality specimens. We try to collect plants in flower or with fruit as these are usually critical for identification.

The plant is laid out on two inter-weaved pieces of newspaper. We carefully spread out structures (i.e. leaves, flowers) so that diagnostic features are clearly evident and make sure that both the upper and the lower leaf surface are visible by turning over some leaves.

Stem of Cullen australasicum folded to fit the paper. It is a specimen with buds, flowers and some seeds. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2014)

The plant needs to be tagged next. The little jeweller's tag has the name of the plant, the date of collection, the voucher number (the voucher is our record keeping book), the year of the Project, and the name of the artist.

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

The same information is written on the edge of the newspaper. This is really helpful if we need to look through the stack for a particular specimen. It is much easier to read that information than open up each "parcel" of newspaper to find the one we are looking for.

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2014)

The plant is then ready to add to the stack of pressed specimens. Cardboard helps to give rigidity to the pressing.

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

Some people have very fancy presses!

Keeping track of what has been collected when and by whom is a daunting task. Amy, Mali and Valerie do a great job of keeping on top of things.

Over the week the piles of pressed specimens collect in the Hall......

 (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

......and then they have to be transported back to Melbourne!

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2014)

For more detailed information about our collecting procedure, look at our Herbarium Specimen Collecting Guide.

Out collecting

The first days of our time in Menindee are often spent out in the bush, searching for the plants that we want to collect and paint. Of course, as we wander our attention is captured by other specimens, so quick outing into the field can end up taking much longer!

[Remember that we collect our plant specimens according to collecting guidelines. For further information, please see our page "Herbarium Collecting Specimen Guide".

Sometimes we went further afield, car pooling with a few cars.

But wherever we went we were reminded of the beauty, diversity and fragility of this amazing area.

Guideline for Collection and Pressing Herbarium Specimens

A large part of our project it to collect the specimens that Hermann Beckler collected. His specimens are an important part of the historical collection in the National Herbarium, Melbourne. Our specimens are being given to the herbaria in Melbourne and Sydney. We have to be very mindful of preserving our plants in a way that will make them useful for the collections. As well, we know that the environment we are in is very fragile and our efforts cannot do any damage to the ecosystem. Our group has come up with a guideline for our collecting.

Part of that document has been added to the page on this blog "Herbarium Collecting Specimen Guide". To look at the guidelines just click on the tab at the top of this page, or click here. If you are interested in viewing the whole document, contact us and we can send it as a PDF file.

This link will take you to the herbarium section of the RBG website. It has information about how the herbarium mounts, files and protects the specimens it receives.

http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/science/herbarium-and-resources/national-herbarium-of-victoria/mounting-specimens