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The responsibilities of the Herbarium Committee are to mount specimens for the UBC Herbarium that has the largest collection in Canada west of Ottawa. They also mount staff collections. This takes place in the Label Room 114 in the Campbell Building. The times are any day during the week from 8:30-4:00 p.m. ongoing throughout the year.
HERBARIUM The UBC Herbarium has a backlog of unmounted specimens collected over the years by students, professors, garden staff and other botanists. They send boxes of pressed, dried plants over to our Herbarium where FOG volunteers mount the specimens on special archival (acid free) paper, then send them back to UBC where they are available for study. These collections are of great assistance to students working towards their degree, and of interest to visiting botanists. We use two basic methods of attachment – glue and thin strips of archival tape. The aim is to produce an artistically attractive plant, while preserving all the botanical details. We don’t glue everything to the page, as students may want to take tiny samples of stamens or petals etc. to study. After gluing or taping we use special weights to hold everything in place until dry. Loose seeds are placed in small envelopes and attached above the information label which comes with every plant. The finished specimens are then placed in paper folders and stacked neatly in boxes, ready to be returned to UBC. Every plant presents its own challenge of arrangement – from unruly clumps of grasses, to tiny fragile ferns to graceful, delicate lilies. Each requires a good eye,a steady hand and the right choice of attachment. The job is always interesting because the content of every new box is a surprise. In the process we are privileged to see collections gathered from all over the world. Some of the plants we recognize, but many are quite new to us, thus affording a wonderful opportunity to add to our knowledge.
UBC Herbarium
Organizing and maintaining this collection is Linda Jennings, one of two Herbarium Collections Managers. Linda also liaises with the volunteers at the Botanical Garden and we are fortunate to have her knowledgeable and enthusiastic support. She tells us that last year, FOG volunteers assisted the Herbarium by mounting approximately 2,000 plants.
Growing up in San Diego, with access to its famous zoo and arboretum, it is no surprise that Linda should have an interest in natural history. This interest eventually progressed to a fascination with botany. While completing her M.Sc. in botany she became the Accessions Technician here at the Botanical Garden. Several years later she made the change to UBC where she now holds the position of Manager of Vascular Plants and Algae Collections.
Linda supervises the mounting, databasing and storage of specimens. The database holds information on the collections, and scans of specimens will soon be added. This technology is important in terms of cross-referencing and preserving a record of the collections, but it lacks the crucial factor of the actual plant – namely, DNA. To assist the small core staff Linda enlists volunteers to mount the specimens. She also trains student employees who are offered work study during the year and paid summer replacements jobs – usually two per year.
All jobs have their challenges, but this one comes with a specific set of problems. Preservation of the specimens is a major concern. Though stored in boxes and stacked in cabinets, insects still find their way inside. Carpet and cigar beetles target the plants, while silverfish enjoy paper and glue. Freezing, rather than chemicals, is the current method of extermination. Once yearly the entire collection is put in large freezers to kill the insects, then returned to storage. If eggs are discovered, they must be allowed to hatch and the resulting insects frozen. The most susceptible genera are frozen more often, and insect traps are kept at the bottom of storage cabinets to alert staff to the presence of intruders.
Light, humidity and temperature also create damage. Light causes fading. Excess humidity and temperature promote decay while too little make specimens brittle. The method of attaching a plant to paper also has consequences. Although both taping and gluing are used, taping is preferable. Gluing is faster, but over decades specimens shrink and expand at a different rate from the glue, and cracking occurs. In the rare event of flooding, the taped plants can be removed from wet paper and saved, but it is impossible to remove glued specimens and they will rot. This proved to be true after the Katrina floods.
Rows of specially designed metal cabinets fill the Herbarium. Pressed and mounted vascular plants are stacked on shallow shelves in folders which have been colour-coded for area of collection. Excess material is stored in boxes on top of the cabinets. Smaller and more fragile items such as fungi and algae are housed in shoeboxes. Space is at a premium.
Collecting of plants is undertaken by students, botanists and occasionally by untrained members of the public. One man spent years collecting wildflowers and weeds around bus stops and in the process came across some unusual finds. Collectors take their pressed collections to the UBC Herbarium, where they will eventually be mounted and catalogued – available for further study.
Diverse groups visit and use the Herbarium. Students, researchers and botanical artists frequent the premises, but it also attracts tourists and those attending conferences at the university. Increasingly, consultants are hired by companies to survey sites prior to commencing work in areas of high biodiversity – the Herbarium is used to determine if the location holds rare or endangered plant species. Perhaps the most unusual use was by a person wishing to obtain ideas for tattoos.
The Herbarium is open to the public from 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday and escorted access to the specimens is possible. The collection is composed of dried vascular plants (which include conifers and ferns), mosses, algae and fungi. The Herbarium also sells beautiful scanned botanical specimens which have been matted and framed, as well as plant presses, cards and postcards. Of special interest are their twice yearly free lectures, given by world-recognized scientists, conservationists and artists. David Suzuki and Robert Bateman have numbered amongst their guest lecturers.
In addition to her Herbarium work, Linda has given lectures to the FOGS and recently accompanied two other members of Garden staff to the Siskiyou Mountains in S.W. Oregon on a plant-collecting trip of her own. She was drawn to this area by the presence of Kalmiopsis, a rare shrub growing in what has been designated a protected area, and by the knowledge that it was a favourite collecting place of the late botanist, Gerald Straley, former Curator of Collections at the Botanical Garden and Director of the UBC Herbarium.
Linda feels that it is essential for collecting to continue for reasons beyond the desire to obtain a complete collection. It is vital to record what is actually becoming extinct compared to what is merely under-collected. In view of global warming, it allows record-keeping on possible earlier blooming and fruiting times – undesirable because pollinators may not be present. It also tracks the movement of invasive species.
The UBC Herbarium will move to different premises this fall in the brand-new Beaty Biodiversity Museum, which will also house over one million natural history specimens. Expanded facilities will include display cases for easy viewing, a shop and a café. It sounds intriguing so we should mark it on our calendars and plan to visit.
Herbarium: http://www.botany.ubc.ca/herbarium Herbarium shop: http://www.botany.ubc.ca/herbarium/shop.html Beaty Biodiversity Museum http://www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/ Lectures at
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