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Make Your Own Herbarium! |
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Here's a scientist looking at a dried plant to figure out what species the plant is. The microscope helps enlarge tiny details.
A herbarium is a collection of carefully-dried plants. You can make your own herbarium and preserve plant specimens that you find!
To start your own herbarium you will need:
-
a pile of old newspapers
- at least four sheets of
heavy cardboard, about 12x24 inches
- two or three old brinks
or other heavy weights
- 3x5-inch or 4x6-inch
index cards and pencils
- scissors for cutting
samples of leaves
- sheets of thin white
cardboard (like shirt boards)
- legal-sized file folders
- white school glue
- a roll of wax paper
- a guide book to local plants
Before you collect anything, it's very important to be certain you have permission. Check with your parents or teacher to be sure you can collect your own samples of plants and make a collection!
Start your own plant Collection
Watch your garden plants and trees carefully to see when their leaves become fully grown.
See if you can identify which species is which by using a field guide like John Farrar's Trees in Canada.
When the plants or leaves are as big as they get, collect a sample. For leaves, including leaves from trees, cut or break a small group of leaves together. You can even collect small branches with flowers on them, too. Be sure to ask permission before cutting or breaking off any plants, and if you use a scissors, get some help from an adult.
For each leaf sample, write down the date, the kind of plant, the location and your name on a 3x5 or 4x6 card and keep it with the sample.
One you have some specimens, you're ready to dry them.
Find a safe place on a shelf or bench to leave your leaf specimens for several days to dry. The area should have good air circulation to carry away moisture.
Place two layers of heavy cardboard on the shelf or bench, and then spread out some old newspapers on the cardboard. and put one leaf specimen between about a dozen layers of newspaper. Don't cover up each leaf specimen until you've included your 3x5 card with the leaves.
Pay down another layer of about a dozen pieces of newspaper on top of each leaf sample. One you have all of your leaf samples stacked up, put another layer of newspapers on top, and then the other two sheets of heavy cardboard. Put the bricks or other weights on top of the cardboard.
Now leave the stack along for at least a week.
After a week, take the top of the stack apart and look at the first layer of leaves. If they feel very dry then you're ready to mount the leaves on the white cardboard.
If your leaves aren't dry yet, then take apart the whole stack and put it back together again with new, dry newspapers. Be sure to handle your leaves carefully, and keep your index cards with the right leaves! Leave the stack for another week, and then take a look again. Once again, if the leaves aren't dry, then replace the newsletters.
Once your plant specimens are very dry, they are ready to be glued down to the white thin cardboard.
Spread a sheet of newspaper on top of a flat surface like a table, and then place a sheet of wax paper on top of the newspaper. Spread a few drops of white glue onto the wax paper, and spread it around until it's a thin, even layer a little bigger than your leaf sample. Decide which side of your leaf sample you'd like to have facing up, and then turn it so that the final "up" side is actually facing up.
Set out a sheet of your white cardboard in a place it will be safe for at least a day.
GENTLY! Set the leaf sample on top of your layer of white glue and let it sit there for a few moments. Them gently lift it off again and lay it down, with the glue facing down, on your white cardboard. Place a little white glue in one corner of your white cardboard sheet, and glue down your index card, too, so that your leaf specimen will always have its original information with it.
Once the glue is dry, your plant will last for years and years on its cardboard sheet. You can even go to museums and see dried plant specimens that were collected and prepared just like yours that are over a hundred years old!
Keep each species, or kind, of plant in its own file folder, and store in a place where they will stay cool, dry and flat. Remember that they are still plants, and so if they get moist they can rot, or if they are found by insects or mice they will get eaten.
See how many plant species you can find in your local area. How many kinds of plants are growing in your home garden, or your own back yard? Can you find out which ones were here hundreds of years ago, and which ones are newer?
When you're outside, try to remember what is underneath your feet! Try not to step on plants or pull them up or pick their flowers, unless you are collecting just a few plant samples, and only do that if you have permission. No matter where you are, someone owns the plants you are looking at! If you want to be welcome for your next visit, be sure to be a good visitor this time around.
Flowers are pretty and smell great, but they are how the plant reproduces and provides more flowers for next year.
