Question

Difference between herbarium and key

Answer 1

A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.[1]

The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called "exsiccatae") but, depending upon the material, may also be stored in boxes or kept in alcohol or other preservative.[2] The specimens in a herbarium are often used as reference material in describing plant taxa; some specimens may be types.

The same term is often used in mycology to describe an equivalent collection of preserved fungi, otherwise known as a fungarium.[3] A xylarium is a herbarium specialising in specimens of wood.[4] The term hortorium (as in the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium) has occasionally been applied to a herbarium specialising in preserving material of horticultural origin.

Answer 2

A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.

The term key refers to a set of alternate characters in such a manner that helps in the identification of plants and animals by selecting and eliminating the characters according to their presence or absence in the organism.

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