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Baselios Marthoma Mathews(BMM) II

Training College, Kottarakkara

TOPIC: HERBARIUM FOR PLANT CONSERVATION

Reg No:13350016

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INDEX

PAGE NO.

INTRODUCTION 3

THE VALUE OF HERBARIA FOR PLANT CONSERVATION 4-5

PURPOSES OF HERBARIA 6-7

USES OF HERBARIA IN EDUCATION & TRAINING 7

SOME OF THE IMPORTANT HERBARIA 7-8

(BOTH NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL)

CONCLUSION 9

REFERENCES 10

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INTRODUCTION

A herbarium is a museum of preserved plants that are used

for botanical research. Each herbarium specimen is made up of a

dried plant, mounted on archival paper, and affixed with a label

providing descriptive data. Herbaria across the globe provide a

permanent record of the diversity of the Earth's flora.

About 1550,Cesalpini and his co-workers began quite

definitely to preserve the materials they studied , and since then

herbarium making became a great and interesting feature of

botanical work. All civilized Countries posses their own plant

collections (herbaria).The greatest herbarium of the world is at the

Royal Botanic gardens, Kew England, possessing about six million

specimens. A few herbaria are their in our country, The biggest

herbarium of our country is at the Indian Botanic Garden, Calcutta,

possessing about one million specimens.

Herberia is a source of knowledge about the flora of a

region or a locality or a country. It is very much useful in the study of

cytology, in studying the structure of DNA, chemotaxonomy,

numerical taxonomy, etc. It is also used as a reservoir of gene pool

studies. It provides the important materials for the anatomical

studies. It is also used as a data store which gives us a lot of

information about the various details about plants. The type

specimens present in the herbaria help in the correct identification

of plants. The morphological characters of pollens which are stored

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in the herbaria remain unchanged even up to 200 years. These are

the various uses and importance of herbaria.

The Value of Herbaria for Plant

Conservation

An often repeated statement is that “you must know what

you have before you can conserve it” …but how do you know what

you have in the first place? Field biologists have been working on

this question for literally hundreds of years by conducting

inventories, from general natural history inventories to small, highly

detailed plot studies of flora and fauna. These inventories result in

preserved specimens, which in the case of plants, are placed into

herbaria along with their associated original locality information.

Herbarium specimens then serve as documented proof of a plant’s

occurrence at a specific time and place. Herbaria have the

advantage over living collections that if well cared for, can last for

hundreds of years if not longer. Although living collections are

valuable for many purposes, they are expensive and difficult to

maintain in cultivation for long periods of time. It is the vast number

of preserved plants and their longevity in storage that make them

ideally suited for the purpose of archiving a host of information on

plants and their habitats.

Worldwide, herbaria contain approximately 300 million

specimens, nearly all with labels that include collection locality

information. The labels may also contain a variety of information,

such as ecology, flowering time, ethnobotany, geology, pollination,

fragrances, and dispersal. Other information can be gleaned from

herbarium labels such as which plants grew where over time and

when did a particular invasive plant invade a particular region.

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Herbarium label information is most often summarized and

published in floras and monographs, though its real potential of

biodiversity mapping is being realized through the accumulation of

its data on computers in combination with global information

systems. One of the most valuable outcomes of this type of work is

the ability to determine which areas are the most species-diverse or

rich in endemic-species, allowing them to be given higher

conservation priorities. A great challenge for herbaria, though, and

the biological sciences in general, is capturing plant label information

electronically so that it can be made widely available for

conservation purposes.

Perhaps of greatest importance, herbaria are potential

repositories of genetic information for every species of plant known

to science. Techniques are continually being refined to extract DNA

and other chemical information from plants preserved decades or

even centuries ago. Newer techniques of DNA extraction,

particularly amplification, allow for smaller and smaller pieces of

herbarium material to be required for genetic analysis, thus

preserving the herbarium specimens for other types of studies.

Recognizing that some traditional preservation techniques may

hinder the future extraction of DNA, herbaria and botanical gardens

are adapting and placing more emphasis on the collection of

materials in silica gel and cryopreservation of seeds and tissues.

Herbarium and herbarium taxonomists have contributed so

significantly to our understanding of Natural History that there is no

need to defend their existence. There is an urgent need to undertake

extensive and intensive explorations of all parts of the country. This

is possible and could be carried out very effectively if the Universities

start taking an interest in developing Herbaria.

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PURPOSES OF HERBARIA

Drying the specimens:

A twig with leaves and inflorescence or flowers is taken from a shrub

or from a tree while the specimen taken from an herb should contain

both the vegetative and reproductive parts. The specimen to be

dried is kept in between the folds of old news papers. The news

papers should be periodically changed until the specimen is

completely dried. The specimen is dried in a plant press. A plant

press consists of two boards tightened with straps with the news

papers containing specimens inside them. Thus the specimen is well

dried.

Mounting of specimens:

The dried specimens are pasted on herbarium sheets of size 41 cm x

29 cm. The process of attaching the dried specimens to the

herbarium sheets is called mounting of specimens. The mounted

specimens are sprayed with a fungicide like 0.1% of silver chloride. It

is protected from insects with the help of pesticides like naphthalene

and carbon disulphide. The heavy parts of plants like fruits and seeds

are put in packets and are attached to the herbarium sheets.

Type Specimen:

When a new name is given or suggested to a species, then the same

specimens of that type are deposited in a recognized herbarium.

These specimens are called type specimens. The family name is given

based on the type genus. These specimens are the most valuable

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part of a herbarium and hence they are handled with special care.

These specimens are stored in fire-proof cabinets.

If the herbarium specimens are stored with special care, then the

specimen can be in a good condition for a long time. The specimen

should be preserved from the attack of insects and fungi. Hence, the

specimens are treated usually with chemicals that can repel the

insects from the specimens. The herbarium specimens are always

accompanied with a label in which the description about the plant,

the botanical name of the plant, family name of the plant, habit,

place and date of collection of the plant and the name of the person

who collected the specimen are given.

Uses of Herbaria in Education & Training

1) provide material for teaching (botany, taxonomy, field botany,

plant communities; ethnobotany;

2) agriculture; dendrology, forestry);

3) promote appreciation of botanical diversity by making specimens

available for viewing by students,

4) researchers, and the public.

5) provide internship and job opportunities for undergraduate and

graduate students

6) provide opportunities for students and young scientists to meet

more established scientists;

7) expose students to systematic research;

8) train local volunteers for specimen handling, scanning, and

databasing etc.;

9) run education courses for the public (e.g. local plant families);

Some of the important Herbaria (Both national and international)

Herbarium of Royal Botanical Garden – Kew, London in England

- More than 60,00,000 specimens

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Herbarium of Indian Botanical Garden- Kolkata, India - More

than 10,00,000 specimens

Botanical Survey of India - Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu- More than

1,90,000 specimens

Presidency College Herbarium - Chennai, Tamil Nadu - More

than 10,000 specimens

Rapinat Herbarium - Trichy, Tamil Nadu - More than 12,000

specimens

Kew garden Herbarium Library

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CONCLUSION

Herbaria are essential for the study of plant taxonomy, the

study of geographic distributions, and the stabilizing of

nomenclature. Thus, it is desirable to include in a specimen as much

of the plant as possible (e.g., flowers, stems, leaves, seed, and fruit).

Linnaeus's herbarium now belongs to the Linnean Society in England.

Specimens housed in herbaria may be used to catalogue or

identify the flora of an area. A large collection from a single area is

used in writing a field guide or manual to aid in the identification of

plants that grow there. With more specimens available, the author of

the guide will better understand the variability of form in the plants

and the natural distribution over which the plants grow.

As a fundamental tool for plant taxonomy, herbaria play

other roles in plant conservation efforts. The simple act of correctly

identifying a plant species is necessary for conservation, providing

the language (Latin names) for biologists of far-flung regions and

ethnicities to be able to accurately communicate with each other.

Herbaria facilitate taxonomic studies by enabling collections from

diverse habitats and localities to be studied in one place. Plant

species vary in size and shape across their geographical range, and

this variation can be observed and studied easily in a herbarium.

Herbaria also serve as a place to deposit voucher specimens from

scientific studies where the correct identification of a plant is

essential.

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Considered as relics of the past by some biologists, there is a

renewed appreciation in the vast amount of information stored in

herbaria and its potential to help us understand, and conserve life on

earth.

REFERENCES

1. Pandey,B.P (2009).Taxonomy of Angiosperms: S.Chand & companyLTD. New Delhi. P.P 76-80

2. http://botany.si.edu/documents/2003_Funk_100Uses.pdf

3. http://www.selby.org/learningandgrowing/articles/value-herbaria-plant-conservation