St.

Scholastica’s College Tacloban

Maharlika Highway, Brgy. Campetik, Palo, Leyte

BASIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

School Year 2019 – 2020

Activity 1.2.
Building a Mini-Exhibit of Plants

I. Introduction/Objectives

A herbarium is a systematically arranged collection of dried plants; it can also

be defined as a collection of preserved plants stored, catalogued, and arranged
systematically for study and acts as a source of information about plants where they are
located, what specific elements and chemicals can be found in its composition, if it is
an angiosperm or a gymnosperm, and its physical characteristics. A voucher herbarium
specimen is a pressed plant sample deposited for future reference. It supports research
work and may be examined to verify the identity of the specific plant used in a study.
Preserved plant specimens can be used to provide samples of deoxyribonucleic acid
and to validate scientific observations.
A herbarium is therefore of immense practical use and of fundamental
importance to science. In addition, beyond their scientific importance, herbarium
collections offer many benefits to society by providing data or reference materials for
critical endeavors such as agriculture, human health, biosecurity, forensics, control of
invasive species, conservation biology, natural resources, and land management.
Herbarium collections provide a wealth of information on a person’s natural heritage
and extend back hundreds of years; thus they provide the only reliable, verifiable record
of the changes to the flora during the expansion of human population.

At the end of the activity, the students are expected to:

a. Determine whether succulent and floral plants differ from their time span
of dehydrating.
b. Determine if adding a thin or thick glace of glycerol affect the color and
structural preservation of the plant specimens.
c. Provide techniques and procedures for collecting, processing, and storing
of plant specimens mounted on an herbarium sheet.
d. Provide permanent record of the plant specimens found in the study area in
terms of locality, distribution, and habitat information.
II. Hypothesis

 There is no significant difference on the effect of adding a thin or thick amount

of glycerol to the color and structural preservation of the plant specimens.
 There is no significant difference on the time span of dehydrating succulent
plants and flowering plants.

III. Materials
 corrugated cardboard and old newspaper
 scissors
 GPS device
 3 plastic bags/brown paper bags
 hand lens
 gloves
 3 paper tag & yarn/ string
 1 soft brush
 3 small 25mL vials
 plant press made of bamboo or wood
 camera
 70% aalcohol
 glycerol

IV. Procedure
1. Lay down the plant between sheets of newspaper or blotting paper to absorb the
moisture of the specimen and make sure that all its parts and features are
showing. Apply glycerol on the plant by brushing a layer on the surface. Place
all fruits and succulent materials in a small vial with 70% alcohol.
2. Place the plant-newspaper arrangement carefully between corrugated
cardboards. The cardboards serve as the rigid flat surface to hold the specimen.
3. When around 5-10 stacks of plant-newspaper-board arrangement have been
completed, stack them together between wooden lattices made of bamboo or
sticks of wood. Tie the rope/leather belt or string around the assembly to hold
the press tightly together as shown in Figure1.5.
4. Let the press stand in warm, dry place or under the sun. be careful not to burn
the specimens or the press.
5. Replace the newspaper every two to three days (or every day, if possible) to
remove moisture and minimize chances of forming molds. Remember to handle
 your specimen with care. If any parts fall off, place this in a labeled paper
envelope alongside the drying specimen.
6. Once the specimen is dry (usually one to two weeks), mount the specimen in a
specimen sheet (29x43 cm, 250GSM) in portrait orientation. Arrange the
specimen aesthetically such that it shows all features.
7. Paper envelope is attached on the lower left corner of the specimen sheet.
8. Attach the specimen by gluing/sewing or using transparent tape. Do not forget
to fasten the label on the lower right corner of the specimen sheet. A specimen
sheet label sheet should contain the collectors name, collection number, date,
scientific name/identification of the specimen, GPS location (lat. & long.),
locality, habitat, and other data.
V. Results and Discussion

Before:

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Plants were arranged and placed on Plants are taped on the newspapers Specimens are applied with a layer
top of newspapers. to avoid moving. of glycerol.

Figure 4
Plant specimens were stacked and
were pressed by wooden lattices
for the plants to dehydrate.
 After:

Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7

A dehydrated bougainvillea specimen A dehydrated pinwheel jasmine A dehydrated pigmyweed specimen to

to be placed on an herbarium sheet. specimen to be placed on an be placed on an herbarium sheet.
herbarium sheet.

In the duration of the activity, different plants were collected from different study areas with their
corresponding coordinate placement that were to be placed on an herbarium sheet after being
dehydrated with a plant press. As seen in figure 2; the specimens were placed and taped on top of
newspapers and half of the plants were applied with a thick layer of glycerol and the remaining
half of the gathered plant specimens were applied with a thin layer of glycerol that can be seen in
3. Once finished applying glycerol, it was covered by a piece of plywood and then covered by a
wooden rack for the plants to be pressed and left to dehydrate for a time span of 2 weeks. By the
end of the 2nd week, the plants have been removed out of the plant press to be examined by the
group and results show that plants that were applied with a thick layer of glycerol preserved its
original color and structure than the plants that were applied with a thin layer of glycerol that can
be seen in figure 5, figure 6, and figure 7. In addition, the thickness of the succulent plant
specimens affected its dehydration process while some plants that had thin leaves and stems
became dry and withered due to the plant press.

VI. Conclusion

In conclusion, the color and structural preservation of the plant specimens can be determined by
the thickness of glycerol glace applied on the specimen and also the thickness of the plant specimen
being preserved. The relative thickness and thinness of a plant’s composition affected its
dehydration process. In addition, certain techniques and procedures for collecting, processing, and
storing of plant specimens plays a vital role in order to achieve the ideal results in making a
herbarium.

VII. Insights

As a group, we have learned that it is actually possible for plants to be preserved using the plant
pressing procedures and techniques we have performed and that glycerol plays a key role in the
preservation of the plants.

Succulent plants may take longer to be pressed than other plants because of the relative thickness
of succulent plants while other plants may become dry and eventually wither if pressed for a long
time. In this activity, we have realized that herbarium collections can have great significance and
value to science, and have a large number of uses and that herbaria are essential for the study of
plant taxonomy, the study of geographic distributions, and the stabilizing of nomenclature.

VIII. References

Edward, G. (2013, August 7). The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Retrieved from http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on 5th September 2019]

Duke, F. (2019, October). What do Herbaria do. Retrieved from https://herbarium.duke.edu

[accessed on 5th September 2019]

Ugbogu O. A. (2019). Grasses of the Forest Herbarium Ibadan (FHI) Nigeria. Version 1.8.
Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.15468 [accessed on
5th September 2019]