Question

What are herbariums?

Answer 1

A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The term can also refer to the building or room where the specimens are housed, or to the scientific institute that not only stores but uses them for research. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper but, depending upon the material, may also be stored in boxes or kept in alcohol or other preservative. 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. A xylarium is a herbarium specialising in specimens of wood. 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

What is herbarium?

Herbarium is a store house of plants species where it is collected, pressed, dried and preserved.

Special Quick Points:-

• It is a quick referral system.
• The standard size of herbarium is 11.5 × 16.5 inches.

The steps of preparing herbarium are as given below:-

1. Collection of the plant species.

2. Drying or pressing.

3. Poisoning by the addition of ethyl chloride.

4. Mounting, itching and labelling in which the dates, local names and scientific names are assigned to the preserved species.

5. Deposition by phylogenic or in India by Berman and Hooker classification.