Herbarium: how to make a home plant collection

Early golden autumn is a great time to collect and dry herbs, field and garden flowers, leaves of shrubs and trees. Communication with nature will allow you to find harmony in the soul, draw energy and calm down. And if you go to a park or a forest with your children, you can enjoy joyful moments of joint pastime and, in addition, instill in the kids interest in the world around them. In this article, we will look at how to assemble a herbarium, how to do it easily and correctly, obtaining in the end beautiful specimens of the local flora. Herbarium means a collection of various plants (herbs, flowers, leaves), collected and dried. Also in the broadest sense of the word, this term can be regarded as an institution engaged in the collection and storage of such compositions. The first herbariums appeared in Italy in the 16th century, and today the largest collections are in museums, botanical gardens and institutes of New York, Paris, St. Petersburg. Domestic collections of dried herbs, as a rule, consist of several dozen exhibits attached to album sheets and supplied with labels with the necessary information.

Your own herbarium: how to make and assemble it correctly?

In order to make a herbarium, you need a minimum set of tools and supplies, including:

• Knife, scissors:
• Paper or newspapers for drying;
• press;
• Albums or folders for convenient storage of plants;
• glue;
• Labels or stickers.

The main rule for collecting any herbs, leaves and flowers is work in dry weather. On the biomaterial, there should be no drops of dew, otherwise it will dry very long and be poorly stored. Tip: to bring home all the leaves and flowers, you can take a folder with you . After collecting all the samples of the local flora that you like, you need to deal with their processing. Gently shake off excess land, straighten the plant, but try to preserve its natural, natural appearance as much as possible.

Home herbarium. How to make and dry it?

Let's consider some basic methods of making herbarium. The simplest technique, known to many since childhood, is the drying of leaves, grasses and flowers in magazines or books, that is, under the press. Its main advantage lies in the fact that thanks to the smooth sheets of printed material the biomaterial takes a convenient flat shape. Unfortunately, using this method, you can not only spoil good books, but also ruin the herbarium by overdrying it. Tip: if you want to make the leaves more durable and dense, lower them into the solution from water and PVA glue. And how to make a herbarium of flowers? The second method of drying is to collect the plants in a bundle and then to hang the "bouquets" on a rope in dry rooms (in a barn or in an attic). This technique is used to dry plants with flowers or fruits. All the flowers will keep their shape and look beautiful.

Herbarium: how to make it with glycerol solution

One of the interesting techniques for preserving and continuing the life of plants is soaking them in a solution of glycerin (three parts of water and one part of glycerin). Leaves, buds and twigs absorb the substance, the water subsequently evaporates, and it remains in the plant. This technique allows to obtain elastic, strong, well-preserved leaves and flowers. The plants only change color - brownish-green. But if necessary, this can be corrected by various aerosol paints. How to make a herbarium of leaves in this way? A solution of glycerin is poured into a bowl with high sides. The plant is prepared: an incision length of about 4 cm is made along the bark or tip of the stem. And then a leaf or twig is placed in a container with a solution for several days. Take the plant out when it darkens. It should be remembered that as the liquid is soaking in, you need to add some more solution to the container. Any further work with samples can be started after their final drying.

Herbarium: how to make it long and securely stored?

After the collection, processing and drying of plants should begin their design in folders or albums for the herbarium. Only one plant of a certain species is attached to each leaf. For clarity, you can put several instances on a page, but parts of them should not protrude past the edges of the paper. For gluing plants use glue and narrow strips of paper. The lower right corner is left free for an inscription or label with the name of the representative of the flora and other important information (date, time, place of collection, etc.).