Botany Specimen Preparation

Statement of Purpose

These links and documents contain information about botany specimen preparation.

Introduction

Botanical specimens can exist in many forms, the most common of which are dried, pressed and mounted on paper or dried and stored in archival packets. Additional preparation types include:

• Alcohol preserved
• Bulk collection
• Cleared and stained (slides)
• Dried tissue (silica or cryo)
• Formalin/FAA preserved
• Live culture
• Lyophilized (freeze-dried)

Botanical specimens should be accompanied by informative labels about the specimen(s) (see Labeling Natural History Collections).

Mounted specimens

The majority of botanical specimens are pressed, dried, and then glued, sewn, or taped to archival paper using archival (acid-free) materials.

Pressing and drying botanical specimens

• British Columbia Ministry of Forests: Techniques and procedures for collecting, preserving, processing, and storing botanical specimens (pgs. 2-13)
• Southern African Herbarium User Manual (pgs. 20-30)
• University of Florida Herbarium Methodologies

Mounting botanical specimens

• British Columbia Ministry of Forests: Techniques and procedures for collecting, preserving, processing, and storing botanical specimens (pgs. 24-26)
• Southern African Herbarium User Manual (pgs. 31-37)
• University of Florida Herbarium Methodologies

Packets

Smaller or bulkier specimens, such as bryophytes, fungi, and lichens, may be dried and stored in smaller packets of archival paper.

• Southern African Herbarium User Manual (pg. 38)