DIRECTIONS FOR FINAL PREPARATION OF
PLANT BIOLOGY 109, SUMMER VERSION
Each specimen should be set up as
Dried plant should be enclosed in a piece of folded newspaper.
Use Seven Days, the Cynic, or similar free newspaper, as the shape of
the paper is better. REMEMBER: the size of the final specimen
should be suitable for mounting on 11.5”X16”paper. Your
collection label should be inserted deep into the fold of the newspaper
with the plant but not taped to the paper or the plant.
You may mount your plants if you want to. Buy herbarium
mounting paper from the Univ. Store. Dilute Elmer’s
Glue 1:1 with water and spread on a cookie sheet or the
like. Drop the dried specimen onto the glue on the cookie
sheet, lift it off with a tweezers or the like, and gently drop it onto
the herbarium sheet. Dry between sheets of wax paper and
cardboard, with a weight at the top of the stack. Takes a
day to dry.
Labels should be printed on a computer. They should be
neatly designed and carefully cut square.
A template for
the labels is available here,
microsoft word file. It's probably best to print this file and
use it as stock in your
printer -- it is difficult (but not impossible) to use as a file
on which to write.
Required label information:
Latin genus and species, author(s) of genus and
Political location: State, county, town. Locate collection
source within town to a permanent feature, such as a municipal park, a
water body, a street, or a public institution.
Ecological information: include light level (sun, partial shade, shade,
deep shade), moisture level (use words like dry, wet, swampy, pond
margin, marsh), and substrate character (ledge, gravel, sand, rich
Morphological information not preserved in drying–if needed– including
latex, odor of crushed foliage, color of flowers.
At the bottom, your name and collection number on the left, the
collection date on the right.
The whole collection:
should be organized by family in alphabetical order, then by genus and
The entire set of plants should then be put into a portfolio, into your
plant press, or into anything else that will keep the whole set of
plants neatly together.
You must include
with your collection a list of your
plants. The list should have for each species the
species, author, and family, e.g. Butomus umbellatus L.
Butomaceae. The list should be in the same order as the