Pressed Plants Making a Herbarium

About this book

A compact and contemporary guide to collecting, drying and storing plant specimens – suitable for both professional researchers and ardent amateurs. The long-awaited update to Dr. Christoper Brayshaw's beloved Plant Collecting for the Amateur, Linda P.J. Lipsen's Pressed Plants goes to the heart of professional and amateur plant collecting today.

Rich in illustrations, infographics, and plant photography, this beautiful book balances the ongoing history of plant collection with practical advice, and it includes the latest updates to best practices, such as how to preserve plant material for DNA extraction and how to navigate increasingly complex cultural and conservation considerations.

Pressed Plants responds to the recent revival of enthusiasm for nature, biodiversity, and conservation with an increased emphasis on how to document the biodiversity around us. It will help any reader feel that they can understand how to properly document plant biodiversity so it's understood, valued, and protected.

Contents

Introduction
I. A brief history on plant collections, collectors and herbaria
II. Collecting, Pressing, and Mounting Scientific Plant Specimens
      1. What, when and how to collect
            a. Materials needed for the field
            b. What makes a good specimen?
                  i. Seasons and reproductive parts
                  ii. Plant parts and habitat considerations for keying
                  iii. Specimen collection information, photos, and DNA
            c. Responsible Collecting - Following best collecting practices
                  i. Agreements
                  ii. Permits
                  iii. Cultural considerations
                  iv. Responsible collecting
                  v. The value of a photo, GPS coordinate and DNA
                  vi. When not to collect
      2. Pressing and Drying
            a. Materials needed
            b. Special cases (aka succulents, cones, large specimens)
      3. Mounting
            a. Materials needed
            b. How to mount a good specimen, and how to save a bad one
            c. How to make a collection label
      4. How to identify your specimen
            a. Paper resources
            b. On-line resources
            c. How to approach taxonomy and keying
      5. Organizing and Cataloguing your Collections
            a. Organizing for Reference (and eventual donation)
            b. Storing for Preservation -freezing, dermestids and storage
            c. Electronic Data
            d. Pictures
            e. DNA
Reference and Resources
Appendix
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Linda P.J. Lipsen is the collections curator at the University of British Columbia Herbarium at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. Linda holds an M.Sc. in botany and has previously worked for the UBC Botanical Garden and taught in UBC's Department of Botany. Derek Tan is the digital media specialist at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.