An Attempt at Capturing Agate’s Impressive Plant Biodiversity

Creating a herbarium collection consists of several main steps. First, collecting the plants in a way to minimize wilting and preserving the roots is important. Additionally, recording important information about the plant, such as the approximate height and the GPS coordinates of where the plant was found, is helpful. Secondly, the plants need to be dried while being pressed in a plant press. With the plant press, it’s important that the plant specimen are placed in between a newspaper and then placed in between absorbent sheets and corrugated cardboard, to assist with the airflow and the drying process. The newspapers also need to be replaced every day earlier on during the process, and later on can be replaced every two-three days instead. Different plants will take longer to dry, and when replacing the papers, it can be helpful to rearrange the stems, leaves, and flower petals. A brush and other tools are used to remove dirt and other debris. Eventually, after the plants are determined to be completely dry, they will need to be placed in a freezer for 48-72 hours, which will help kill pests, prior to placing these plants in the glass preservation mounts. Lastly, placing the plants in the glass mounts, writing the correct labels, and including necessary scientific and ethnobotanical information is crucial. A large part of this project involves correctly identifying plant species. This is something that can be challenging, but is very fun to realize how many leaf or petal patterns you can pick up on that are unique to a specific plant species. I will update more on the process once my plants are dry and are being transitioned into the glass cases.