Cabinet 1 is looking better everyday!

Hello plant lovers,

The past couple of weeks, I have been focusing on cataloging (or entrying data), annotating and organizing all of Cabinet 1! As mentioned before, our collection is being organized according to the the Edward G. Voss’ Michigan Flora 2nd edition which contains 3 volumes. However, these books do not include ferns and allies, therefore; we are organizing our fern cabinet according to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III System (http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apweb/).

Along our collection, we encounter different collored folders and specimens that need to be foldered correctly.

Did you know that there is a right way of foldering specimens in an Herbarium? Everything is well thought in the Herbaria world!

First we must have a genus folder:

Genus Folder (It is thicker than the rest)

Then, foldered in the opposite direction and inside the genus folder, we must have a species folder!

Genus and species folders are in opposite directions

Specimens Foldered correctly

                                           

This way the specimens are protected against external damage and are more easily to be handed!

Here is how cabinet 1 is looking like after we foldered all the specimens and labeled all the folders!

There is more room for improvement here, but I can help on feeling very well about this! I can't wait to have all of our 14 cabinets looking like this one!

Thank you!

Emilie

Annotating Specimens

Hello Everyone!

This week I focused on producing annotation labels and glueing them on specimens that had the scientific name and/or the family name changed.

According with Simpson (2010) on his book "Plant Systematics," an annotation label "verifies or changes the identity of a specimen or that documents the removal of plant material from the specimen." Also, everytime a researcher loans specimens from ah Herbarium and uses it for research, the specimen has to be annotated.

Usually, annotatioa labels are permanent and are glued above the standard Herbarium label. It is important that an annotation label contains the name of the herbarium, the name being changed (species, family or both); the name of who determined it and the determination source.

We started by annotating the specimens on our first cabinet. It contains our non-vascular plants, ferns and allies. Many of them were collected and indentified in the 60's , therefore lots of name changes (and annotations) had to be made!

Here are some pictures of the labels!

Annotation for a specific name change

Annotation for Family name change

I really enjoy checking name changes and annotating the specimens! I feel I am learning so much about plant taxonomy these days, and for me it is definetely the beggining of the realization of a goal I had for myself! Also, after annotating the entire cabinet 1, I think I am on my way to becoming a fern expert ;)

Thanks for reading!

Emilie

Reference Cited

Simpson, Michael George. Plant systematics. 2. ed. Amsterdam [u.a.: Elsevier Acad. Press, 2010.    Print.

Week 5: The Digitization Project

This was a very eventful week at the CMC Herbarium! The digitizing equipment is all assembled together and only a few adjustments are needed so it is ready to go!

Therefore, Anna had to go through a series of online meetings to learn how to operate and adjust the equipment. There are many steps that have to be followed in order to digitize specimens, so all of this seems very challenging to me. However, I am positive that after we get some practice the work is going to flow well, and honestly I can't wait to database our collection!

 Anna participating in a online meeting about the digitizing equipment.

 Taking trial pictures of specimens

 Testing the equipment

Barcodes like this one will be added to our specimens after they are digitized.

To learn more about the digitizing equipment used in our Herbarium, please visit the "Silver Biology Group" website: http://www.silverbiology.com/

However, finishing setting up the digitizing equipment was not the only thing we had to worry about this week. There are a few more things we had (and still have) to accomplish at the CMC Herbarium and we call it the "CMC Digitization Project": 1) Figure out how to organize the collection, 2) Check what materials we have in each cabinet to allow organization; 3) Double check family and species names of the specimens we currently have to check if any updates are needed; 4) Produce and attach annotation labels on specimens if needed.

I will comment on each topic in order,  

1. Right now, the specimen organization is based on the organization of Edward G. Voss’ Michigan Flora.  His system is based off of a natural system proposed by Adolf Engler in Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien (The natural plant families), edited with Karl A. E. Prantl, 1887-1915. This system is commonly used is most large American herbaria. Using the Engler System, herbarium specimens are arranged by Family and then in alphabetical order by Genus and further by specific epithet.

If you want to know more about the advantages and disadvantages of both Systematic and Alphabetical arrangements of Herbaria, check our website below and click on "Filing in an Herbarium": http://cmcherbarium.bio.cmich.edu/collection_curation.html


2. At the Herbarium, we have cabinets that are used to store our collection and also research and classes collections. This week, I went through the research cabinets and took notes of what’s in them as well as pointed out which shelves were empty or underused (see pictured below). This process will give us an idea of how much free space we have in the Herbarium so we can better organize it.

Organization sheet 

 The idea is to go through the collection cabinets and do the same.

3. Do you remember that during weeks 2 and 3 I was cataloging the specimens we had in our collection cabinets? In 2 weeks I was able to list in a Excel spreadsheet all the specimens stored in our first 3 cabinets. This week, I had to double check the name of all families and species on Tropicos ( www.tropicos.org) so we can annotate the labels on our specimens.

4. I completed the process above for our 1^st cabinet to have an idea of how long it takes me to do it. It takes me about 30-40 min to double check all the families and species we have in a cabinet but it is a very important process. We need to know the most recent names to the current families and species we have so we can generate a trustable database. Therefore, my next step was to make the annotation labels (yes, I know VERY exciting!!) for all the specimens that need one. Below is the annotation label template I created! I am very excited because my name will be on them, YAY!

Annotation labels

Wow, there was lot of work  to do this week but it is so worth it! Next week, the “Digitization Project” continues and will keep you updated on the news!!

Have a great day,

Emilie

Week 4: Work in Progress

This week I continued to catalog specimens and to list the links for various rare species!

Meanwhile, boxes and more boxes arrived via mail containing computers, cameras and more electronic equipment!

The Biology Information and Technology Staff started to put the equipment together and this is how it looked in the beginning of the week:

1st of connecting the Digitazing equipment

By the end of the week, the equipment is almost ready to start the digitazation!

Digitazing Equipment set up

Thanks to Robert Devantier and assistants the digitazation of the CMC Herbarium is on its way to becoming a reality! Thanks for your efforts!

Emilie