ASSIGNMENT: Collect at least twenty specimens of plants, press them, dry them, mount them on herbarium sheets, and provide the appropriate information on the herbarium gum labels. The twenty plants must be collected with the following requirements in mind:

1. No plant may be collected from private property without permission.

2. No endangered or threatened plant species may be collected (See attached list).

3. Do not collect a plant unless there are many in the area you are collecting.

4. Do not collect plants from wilderness areas or other restricted park areas.

5. At least 5 of the specimens must be from trees.

6. At least 1 of the specimens must be a fern or fern relative.

7. At least 2 of the specimens must be a gymnosperm.

8. At least 1 of the specimens must be from a shrub.

EVALUATION OF SPECIMENS: Each plant specimen will be evaluated and judged using the following criteria:

1. Is the plant adequately dried and pressed?

2. Is the plant itself a good specimen representative of the species?

3. Were all of the criteria of the assignment followed?

4. Is the plant correctly identified with a common and technical (scientific) name?

5. Is the plant placed in the correct family?

6. Is the herbarium label completely filled out with correctly spelled information?

Each plant will be worth 2.5 pts. You may collect more plants than just twenty if you wish, however, a maximum of 55 pts. will be offered.

HINTS ON COLLECTION PROCEDURES:

1. Seek out plants with flowers (in the case of angiosperms), or good typical leaf specimens (in the case of trees). Choose a good specimen and take one for pressing and another for keying. Ideally, as you become more experienced, you will key plants as they are found. Generally, persons who work with plants regularly are able to recognize the family of a plant and proceed quickly through the keying process. Good sources of plants are in unmowed areas along edges of lots, vacant lots, railroad rights-of-way, edges of wooded areas, embankments, areas in fallow, the woods on the YHC campus, roadsides, and other suitable areas. If possible, using an old table knife, heavy belt knife, trowel, special digging tool, etc., take enough of the root system of the plant to identify whether it is a taproot or fibrous system and clean as much of the soil as possible from the specimen. In the case of tree specimens, a branch with a few typical leaves would be ideal. Place the specimen in a folded single thickness of newspaper in the press with driers and ventilators placed to absorb and allow the transfer of moisture from the specimen. If the plant is too long for the press and to mount on the herbarium sheet with a margin of one inch, fold or (less desirable) cut the plant to fit. Place a label with the plant or write pertinent information on the margin of the newspaper. Kneel on the press or have another person press down on the press while you fasten the straps to place pressure on the specimens.

2. As soon as possible, identify the fresh specimen that you have placed in the plastic bag. Dried specimens can be keyed by first soaking them in water or wetting the flowers to make them pliable. Bagged specimens can be kept for some time in a refrigerator. If a group is collecting together, a cooler will maintain the freshness of the plants and has other uses to recommend it to a thirsty collector.

3. Keep the pressed plants in the press for AT LEAST 3 days for proper drying. Larger plants, or plants with thick leaves may take as long as 10 DAYS for drying. Also, wet weather may prolong the drying time. It is very important on this project to not wait until the last minute to do your collecting for obvious reasons.

4. Remove plants from the press one at a time. Spread a thin layer of white glue on a glass plate using a finger or roller. Too heavy a coating will cause glue to flow over the top surface of the plant but can be removed by dabbing with a tissue. Too thin a coating will leave parts of the plant not sticking to the herbarium sheet, but glue can be dabbed in place to hold those portions down. When the glue becomes tacky or lumpy, wash the plate and form a new layer. Wash the plate when you are finished with your mounting session.

5. Attach the plant to the herbarium sheet at the bottom first, then carefully smooth it in place moving toward the top of the sheet and toward the sides. A good mount should be attached everywhere, should be neat in appearance and should stand considerable handling. Attach your label, lean back and breathe a sigh of relief at a job well done.