Where do the plants come from?

Where do the plant specimens come from?

This blog is all about the Herbarium, but how does the Herbarium come across all these fascinating plants to share with the world? That is where we come in:

Figure 1. Hillary and Rachel, prairie fen fanatics and student researchers.

Specimens are usually contributed to the CMC Herbarium by students who take plant-related classes, student researchers, and professors, but anyone can collect given they know and follow State and Federal laws and acquire the proper permits. This summer Hillary, a junior at CMU, and I, a graduate researcher, set out to study the wide diversity of the plants of prairie fens.

We visited ten different prairie fens in south-central Michigan and collected over 800 voucher specimens. These specimens will support our field identification of the plant species for our theses and papers. A great specimen must have all the plant parts, including the roots (a tough job with some Carex and wetland species). These specimens must be pressed and dried for at least two weeks and frozen in a no-frost freezer to prevent insect and mold contamination of the Herbarium collection. For more information on collecting see the CMC Herbarium website (http://cmcherbarium.bio.cmich.edu/collections.html). After confirmation of species identity and properly mounted and labeled, they will be submitted to the Herbarium as specimens.

Figure 2. On the top is the specimen of Scirpus atrovirens in the field. It was pressed, dried, and frozen (bottom left). After a confirmation of its identity, an herbarium label will be printed and the specimen will be mounted and catalogued in the CMC Herbarium (bottom right).

 

Figure 3. The common elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) was collected (top), pressed (bottom left), and will be labeled and mounted (bottom right). When pressing, it is important to make sure that all leave surfaces and many different angles of flowers and fruits are showing, because once a specimen is dried, it is very delicate and breaks easily.

Traveling to all of the different prairie fens and watching the plants come into bloom was amazing. Hillary and I learned to identify so many new wetland and prairie species. With the Herbarium, we can share all of our beautiful plants with others.

Rachel

Photos by Rachel Hackett and Hillary Karbowski.