CHAPTER 18
HERBARIA AND DATA INFORMATION SYSTEMS
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is an herbarium?
A herbarium is a repository of preserved plant collections. The plants are usually in the form of pressed and dried specimens mounted on a sheet of paper
2. What is the function or purpose of herbaria?
The purpose of herbaria is both to physically contain the plant collections and to act as centers for research. The plant collections function as vouchers for identification and as source material for systematic work.
3. What is the name and most recent version of the reference book that lists the names, acronyms, and details of herbaria
worldwide?
Index Herbariorum.
4. What is an herbarium specimen?
An herbarium specimen consists of a pressed and dried plant that is permanently glued and/or strapped to a sheet of paper along with a documentation label.
5. What are the characteristics of an herbarium specimen, including the standard size (in the United States)?
An herbarium specimen is glued onto paper that is high quality, heavyweight and acid-free usually measuring 11.5”x16.5”. The herbarium label is glued to the lower right corner of the specimen.
6. Describe a standard format and list the information that is contained in an herbarium label.
An herbarium label should list all characteristics about the plant in the first paragraph. In the second paragraph information about the habitat and locality of the plant is included. The third paragraph may include other field notes and the collector, collection number and date of collection is listed at the bottom of the label.
7. If a plant specimen is divided among two or more herbarium sheets, how is the herbarium label written?
A separate label must be prepared for each herbarium sheet used, using the same collection number but different accession numbers.
8. Describe the procedure for mounting plants on herbarium paper.
First, place a sheet of herbarium paper on top of a cardboard.
Position the herbarium label without gluing.
Determine the position of the plant specimen on the paper.
Coat a large sheet thoroughly with a layer of glue, transfer the plant specimen to the glue-covered sheet, press down gently then remove and place back onto the herbarium paper.
Glue directly any plant surfaces that require greater adhesion.
Glue down the herbarium label then place weights over the label and the plant and leave to dry.
9. What are two type of glues used for the above? How do they differ?
Regular white glue diluted in a 9:1 fashion with tap water or methyl cellulose. Methyl cellulose can be soften or dissolved with minimal moistening allowing for removal of the plant specimen whereas regular white glue cannot.
10. What is an herbarium curator and what are his/her duties?
The person in charge of the day-to-day running of a herbarium. Curators are responsible for managing the existing collection, mounting, labeling and accessioning new additions to the herbarium, distributing requested loans from scientific institutions and receiving loans and acting as a resource person for the identification of regional plants or plants of special collections.
11. What is an accession number and what is its function?
An accession number is a number assigned to each specimen placed into a permanent herbarium collection. Its purpose is to provide a permanent reference for each specimen of the plant collection.
12. What is a genus folder?
A genus folder is a folder of stout, heavyweight paper used to store herbarium specimens by genus or some other grouping.
13. Why are many genus folders color-coded?
To represent different geographic regions for the plant collections.
14. How are herbarium specimens typically stored?
In air-tight herbarium cabinets.
15. Review the procedures for handling herbarium specimens.
Remove the entire genus folder from the cabinet and close the cabinet door immediately. Place the folder on a clean table and open it. Hold individual specimens with both hands to prevent it from bending. Never place anything on top of a specimen. Never turn a sheet upside down. Avoid sliding stacked specimens against on another. When finished, replace the removed specimens in the genus folder alphabetically.
16. What is an annotation label?
An annotation label is a label that verifies or changes the identity of a specimen or that documents the removal of plant material from the specimen.
17. What are the different types or designations on annotation labels?
An update of the nomenclature of a species, a list of the reference and indication that the person making the determination did examine the specimen critically or the citation of an original monographic treatment, published or unpublished.
18. Review the procedures for removing material from an herbarium specimen.
Get permission from the herbarium curator, see if the material you need is contained in an envelope attached to the sheet. If not, carefully and conscientiously clip, cut or pull off material from the specimen minimizing the damage done.
19. How may removed material be reconstituted for observations?
In boiling water and/or a detergent solution.
20. What is an herbarium loan and what is its purpose?
A herbarium loan is when herbarium specimens are sent out to members of universities, museums or other research institutions for the purpose of research.
21. How may insects be controlled in herbaria?
Chemically or by freezing
22. What is a data information (database) system?
A database system refers to the organization, inputting and accessing of information.
23. What types of data manipulation may be done with data information systems?
Data may be manipulated such that general or specific questions in plant taxonomy may be addressed.
24. How might data information systems be valuable in conservation biology?
They allow for the tabulation of presence, range and distribution of taxa.
25. What is the difference between a flora (or floristic study) and a monograph, and what are examples of each?
Floristics is the documentation of all plant species in a given geographic region.
A monograph is a detailed taxonomic study of all species and infraspecific taxa of a given taxonomic group.