Volumetric herbarium. DIY leaf herbarium for kindergarten and school with photo

Making a herbarium

Neither verbal descriptions, nor drawings, nor botanical guides can give such a complete picture of the plant world as direct study of it. But if you pick a plant and bring it into the room, it will quickly wither. But the plant can be preserved for a long time. To do this, you need to dry it by placing it between sheets of paper. Botany lovers have a whole collection of such dried plants. In order for the collection to last longer and for it to be convenient to use, it must be well and correctly designed and provided with labels. This collection is called herbarium.

For over 200 years, scientists, travelers and botanists who studied the plant cover of our country collected herbariums. These herbariums are carefully stored in various botanical scientific institutions, the largest of which in our country is the Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. The most complete herbarium of flora is concentrated there Soviet Union(over 5 million herbarium sheets). The herbarium of Moscow University contains 700 thousand herbarium sheets. Many cities and local history museums have herbariums of local flora collected by amateur botanists and local historians. In higher and secondary educational institutions, the herbarium is used as visual aid in botany lessons. These herbariums are usually compiled by students.

Many people think that collecting plants and compiling a herbarium is a very simple matter. It's really not difficult. However, for a collection to have scientific or educational value, a number of rules must be followed. First of all, you need to correctly collect the plants, write down their living conditions and location; then identify the plants, i.e. find their scientific names; Finally, the plants must be skillfully dried and prepared into herbarium specimens. For all this, you need a manual for identifying plants and simple equipment that anyone can do themselves.

To collect and dry plants, you should stock up on blotting (filter) or newspaper (the format of central newspapers) paper, which absorbs and releases moisture well. From half-sheets of newspaper folded in half, prepare drying shirts. Plants are placed in them. Whole newspapers, folded in four, serve as interchangeable pads between the “shirts” with plants. To collect fruits and seeds prepare bags, or capsules, from writing paper. For labels, cut a pack of labels into 1/8 of a sheet from the same paper or use a small notepad. It is also necessary to prepare sufficient quantity dense, better than special herbarium paper, carefully cut it into sheets of a generally accepted format: width - from 28 to 30 cm, length - 42-45 cm. The herbarium will be mounted on these sheets. You also need good clean glue (gum arabic, photo glue).

A morphological herbarium showing how different the shape of inflorescences can be.

Plants intended for herbarization are collected entirely, that is, with all above-ground and underground organs - roots, rhizomes, tubers, bulbs, which are removed from the soil with an iron scoop or botanical digger. It can be replaced by a strong kitchen knife or a wide chisel. For longitudinal cutting of thick rhizomes (so that they dry out faster), as well as for cutting (do not break off) branches from trees and shrubs, use a garden or pocket knife. Aquatic plants are caught from the water with a small hook or a “cat” (an anchor or a large fishing rod with a sinker on a long cord). They can also tilt or pull up a branch. tall tree. For drying “shirts” and plants collected in the field, it is necessary excursion folder. It consists of two plates of cardboard or plywood with slots near the corners - a wide braid is threaded through them to tie a folder and carry it over the shoulder.

Plants are dried in botanical press. It represents two wooden frames of the same size (30X45 cm or 35X50 cm, i.e. slightly larger than a herbarium sheet), on which metal mesh is stretched. To tighten the press, use a strong cord or two belts. The press can also be made from two sheets of plywood, drilling many holes in them for ventilation. If you cut slits in the corners of plywood sheets and thread tape through them, you will get a combined folder-press suitable for both collecting and drying plants.

Plants for the herbarium are collected only in dry, clear weather. Plants wetted by rain or dew take a long time to dry and may deteriorate. This condition also applies to plants that are dried in sand (see below).

From left to right: botanical digger and scoop, excursion folder made of cardboard or plywood for collecting plants, press for drying plants (dimensions are given in centimeters).

Not every plant is suitable for a herbarium. Specimens should be selected that are fully developed, without any damage, with blossoming flowers and, if possible, with fruits, even if unripe (without fruits, some plants are very difficult to identify). Branches with leaves are cut off from trees and shrubs so that you can see not only the shape, but also the location of the leaves. For the herbarium you need their flowers and fruits, and for conifers - cones. Dioecious plants should be represented in the herbarium by male and female specimens, and monoecious plants by specimens with pistillate and staminate flowers. From large herbaceous plants that do not fit entirely on a herbarium sheet, parts are taken from which one can easily get an idea of ​​the whole plant.

Once the plant is removed from the soil, it is thoroughly cleaned of soil adhering to the roots and immediately placed in a drying “jacket.” All plant organs are first straightened. If some leaves lie on top of each other, layers of drying paper are placed between them so that the leaves do not turn black during the drying process. One or two leaves should be bent so that the lower surface of the leaf blade is visible. Under large and delicate flowers useful to put thin layer absorbent cotton wool. tall plants with narrow leaves, for example cereals, are bent and placed in a “shirt” in a zigzag. Whenever bending, the plant must be placed so that the root faces down and the end of the stem faces up.

For herbarization, it is recommended to take at least three copies of each botanical species. Of these, one is intended for dissection (dividing into parts) during identification, the second is for mounting on a herbarium sheet, and the third is a spare one.

For each plant, right there in the field, a rough label, which is put into the “shirt” with it and is not subsequently separated from it. The labels are numbered sequentially, with the label number replacing the plant name until it is identified. The label leaves free space for the Russian and Latin botanical names of the species and family. If the herbarium is intended for a local history museum, then the local folk name of the plant is also recorded. Next, the features of the habitat of the taken plant are noted, i.e. the environment in which this species grows: terrain, soil properties, degree of moisture, lighting conditions, nature of distribution, etc. The geographical location where the plant was taken is also indicated. Finally, the date the plant was picked is recorded. The label is signed by the one who found the plant for the herbarium, and then by the one who identified it. If the plant is accompanied by a bag of fruits or seeds collected at another time, then this date is also marked on it.

To establish the exact scientific name of a plant species and its belonging to a particular family, plant identification keys are used. At the end of the collection, all “shirts” with plants must be transferred (without turning them over!) from the folder to the press frame. In this case, 2-3 pads made of the same newsprint are placed between the “shirts” to absorb moisture. The “shirts” are laid out on the frame so that the thick parts of the plants are positioned alternately in one direction or the other, then the stack of “shirts” will be smooth, without humps. Having covered the pack with a second frame, tighten the press tightly with crosswise straps or a cord in 2 loops. In this form, the press is hung or leaned against a wall somewhere in the sun and wind. At least once a day, wet pads are replaced with dry ones. The “shirts” do not change, and the plants are not removed from them. In wet weather the press is usually placed about warm stove or batteries central heating, placing it on its edge. To speed up drying, they also use a hot iron, carefully ironing the plant through paper or gauze. With these methods, plants dry out faster and retain their natural color better.

Drying on cotton mats is used for those plants that turn black during slower drying, for example, plants from the orchid family, some willows, etc. The blue and blue color of the corollas, for example, in bluebells and blue cornflower, is better preserved if When planting these plants in a press, place thin cotton pads under the inflorescences.

The plant can be considered dry and suitable for mounting if, when lifted by the root collar, it does not bend and retains the shape acquired in the press. Only one species is mounted on one herbarium sheet - in one or several copies. The plant is placed on a herbarium sheet so that its parts do not protrude beyond the edges, and is attached in different places with narrow (3-4 mm wide) strips of paper. Glue is applied to the ends of the strip and the corners of the label. Thick parts of plants, such as rhizomes, can be attached to the leaf with threads. To prevent the threads from being visible, they are painted with watercolors or ink. green color. Plants cannot be glued to paper. A bag or capsule with fruits or seeds is glued to the lower left corner of the herbarium sheet. The lower right corner of the sheet is reserved for the label, rewritten completely in ink, or best of all, in ink. The seed packet and label are glued slightly away from the edges of the sheet. A clean herbarium label looks like this:

Herbarium sheet with dried plant, label and seed packet.

When dried in a press, the plant loses its three-dimensional shape, and the natural arrangement of its parts in space is disrupted. Therefore, if it is necessary to preserve the volume of a plant or flower during drying, they resort to another method - drying it in sand. For this you need a small, even river sand. It must be completely clean, free from clay and organic residues. This is achieved by washing the sand in water until the turbidity completely disappears. The sand is then dried and calcined on a hot plate in iron pans until the emission of smoke and odor ceases. Sand prepared in this way is stored in a closed container.

Major families of flowering plants. Ranunculaceae: 1 - oak anemone, a - flower, b - fruits; 2 - European swimsuit; 3 - larkspur, and - cross-section of a flower. Moths: 4 - red clover, a - flower, b - part of the root; 5 - meadow rank. Umbelliferae: 6 - carrot, a - flower, b - fruit. Cruciferous: 7 - cabbage, a - fruit-pod; 8 - field lily, and - fruit. Rosaceae: 9 - brown rosehip, a - false fruit; 10 - common pear, and - cross-section of a flower.

Most often dried in sand large flowers, inflorescences, branches with fruits, shoots and small plants, such as sundew. The easiest way is to dry the plant in a cone-shaped “fountain” made of thick paper. The sharp top of such a cone is bent and secured with a paperclip to prevent sand from spilling out. The flower is placed in a “pound” and carefully covered with sand from a spoon or scoop. Cones with plants embedded in sand are placed in a special rack or hung on nails. The drying place should be warm and well ventilated. The duration of drying plants in sand varies. It depends on the plant (thin or fleshy leaves and stems) and on the air condition (temperature, humidity, wind). Ability to determine the time required for drying different plants, acquired by practice.

Compositae: 11 - perennial aster; 12 - blue cornflower, a - basket, b - funnel-shaped flower; 13 - common tansy; 14 - common chicory, a - root. Liliaceae: 15 - May lily of the valley, a - fruits, b - part of the rhizome; 16 - yellow goose onion. Lamiaceae: 17 - meadow sage; 18 - peppermint. Solanaceae: 19 - potato, a - flower, b - cross-section of the fruit. Cereals: 20 - timothy (sultan); 21 - rye (ear); 22 - corn, o - cob; 23 - annual bluegrass, and - flower.

Plants dried in sand, especially flowers, become very fragile and must be removed from the sand very carefully. You cannot pour sand from the cone over the edge - the plant or flower can be broken. It is better to release sand in a thin stream from a hole made with an awl or nail at the bottom of the cone. Dried plants should be stored in closed boxes or under a glass cover in the dark. They fade quickly in the light.

When the plant dries out, it loses its natural color. First of all, the red and blue color of the flowers fades; the yellow color lasts longer. At long-term storage the color of leaves and stems changes. From green it becomes brownish-brown. What to do in this case? Watercolors come to the rescue. You need to choose the appropriate tone and paint the petals and green parts of the dry plant with a thin brush, restoring the natural color. If the paint does not stick to the waxy coating that sometimes covers the surface of plants, then a thin layer of heated gelatin is first applied to it with a brush.

Why is a herbarium needed?

The word "herbarium" originally referred to a book about medicinal plants. Tournefort (c. 1700) used the term to refer to a collection of dried plants; it was adopted by Linnaeus and, under his influence, replaced the earlier term "hortus siccus" with "herbarium". Nowadays, a herbarium refers to both a collection of dried (or otherwise fixed) plants and the institution in which it is stored.

When creating a herbarium, it solves the following problems:

· stores reference material;

· provides samples for determination by a comparative method;

· Serves as a standard for correct scientific names.

Depending on the tasks and capabilities, as well as the nature of the work being carried out, herbaria can be distinguished as general, regional, local, and special. General herbaria can be very large. The largest herbarium in our country and one of the largest in the world is stored at the Botanical Institute. V.L. Komarov in St. Petersburg. It contains more than 5 million leaves of plants found throughout Russia and neighboring countries. The herbarium of K. Linnaeus and the Kew Botanical Gardens in London has 6.5 million specimens.

But there are also small herbariums that study the flora of a certain region or region. Every higher educational institution, where biologists, ecologists, etc. are trained. usually has its own herbarium collections that meet certain requirements. Educational herbaria are classified as special herbaria. They can be located not only in universities, but also in schools and colleges. Such collections should contain specimens to illustrate the morphological structures of plants, representatives of economically important and cultivated plants, grown in a given locality, specimens to illustrate the characters of the main families and genera.

Observing plants in nature, collecting them and compiling a herbarium is a fruitful and exciting way to get to know the world of plants. No, even a beautifully executed drawing, much less an oral description, can replace natural plant, dried on a herbarium sheet. Not every plucked and dried plant can be called a herbarium specimen - a herbarium, i.e. a collection of "specially collected and dried plants that have been subjected to scientific processing(definition, classification, etc.)".

Without herbarium collections, plant taxonomy is impossible.

The work of creating a herbarium is very labor-intensive, but excitingly interesting. WE WISH YOU SUCCESS!

How to properly collect plants for a herbarium?

To collect plants and compile a herbarium, the following equipment is required:

1. Herbarium folder for transfer collected plants and a supply of paper, consisting of two sheets of thick cardboard or plywood measuring 45x35 cm with two ribbons threaded into the cuts for tightening. Lately It became a practice to collect plants for the herbarium in large bags. This allows them to be brought to the base fresher, which makes subsequent loading into the press easier.

2. A supply of paper for drying plants, if possible not glued, porous (filter paper, newspaper).

3. Tools for digging and cutting plants.

4. Labels.

5. Herbarium press, consisting of two metal or wooden frames covered with mesh.

When collecting plants for a herbarium, a number of rules must be followed:

1. Plants for the herbarium are collected in dry weather, because After rain or dew, plants dry poorly and may turn black.

2. For the herbarium, take healthy, undamaged plants, with all above-ground and underground organs. This is due to the peculiarities of identifying plants by morphological characteristics.

3. Herbaceous plants, exceeding the size of the folder, bend 2-3 times. Taken from very large plants top part with flowers and leaves, the middle one with leaves and the lower one with basal leaves. Shoots with leaves, flowers and fruits (if any) are cut from trees and shrubs.

4. Plants of the same type are placed in the shirt. Large plants take 1-2 copies, small ones - up to 10 or more (to fill the sheet).

5. Plants are dug up and freed from soil. Thick stems, rhizomes and roots are cut in half lengthwise.

6. To place the plant, the folder must be placed on a flat surface.

7. When placing it in a folder, the plant must be straightened and given the shape in which it will later be mounted. You can't tear anything off, especially lower leaves. If the plant has a lot of leaves that overlap each other, you need to remove some of the leaves, while preserving the petioles, so that you can have an idea of ​​the true leaf arrangement. When preparing a plant for installation, some of the leaves are unrolled with the underside so that the nature of the pubescence or other features can be seen. The same is done with part of the flowers (inflorescences).

8. A draft label is inserted into the shirt with the plant, which indicates:

1. name of the plant (if the plant is unknown, then it can be assigned a number or given a conventional name);

2. the place where the plant was collected (region, district, nearest settlement);

3. plant habitat (meadow, forest, steppe, etc.);

4. date of collection;

5. by whom the plant was collected and identified;

6. in which communities and how often this type meets.

It is necessary to know which species are protected and not to dig them up unless absolutely necessary. One gets acquainted with such plants at the place where they grow.

In addition, the annual mass collection of plants in one area entails a reduction in their numbers and can cause significant harm to the state of the local flora. To avoid this, you can collect part perennial plants without underground parts, cutting off only above-ground shoots.

How to dry plants?

The collected plants must be placed in a herbarium press for drying. To do this, they are taken out of the folder along with the sheet on which they are placed (the shirt) and transferred to the press, interspersed with additional sheets of paper - spacers. In this case, the plants are well straightened so that the individual parts do not overlap each other. If this is not possible, paper is placed between the overlapping organs.

Plants should not protrude beyond the paper. A label must be included with the plant.

To speed up the drying of very succulent plants (for example, orchids), they are scalded with boiling water without immersing the flowers in water. For bulbous plants, the bulb is cut lengthwise and then scalded.

A stack consisting of herbarium shirts (sheets with plants) and pads is placed between the halves of the press and tightened tightly. Up to 50 sheets of plants can be placed in one press.

The press is dried in the sun, making sure to bring it indoors at night. Wet pads are replaced with dry ones daily (for aquatic plants- 2 times a day).

A properly dried plant becomes fragile, its leaves and flowers do not sag. When applied to the lips, it does not cause a feeling of cold.

How to properly install a herbarium?

A plant mounted on a herbarium sheet should make it possible to study it to get a true idea of ​​its morphology. In this regard, when designing a herbarium, it is necessary to adhere to a number of rules and requirements:

1. Plants dried in botanical presses are mounted on a herbarium sheet made of thin white cardboard or thick white paper measuring 42x28 cm (A3 format). One or more are placed on one herbarium sheet (in the case of small sizes) specimens of plants of the same species.

2. A label is glued to the lower right corner of the herbarium sheet. Its size is usually 10x8 cm. Entries on the label are made in black ink, legible handwriting. Information is transferred to it from the draft label. A herbarium without a label has no value!

3. For installation, the most successful specimens are selected, with flowers and fruits that do not have damaged organs (if this is not a herbarium of damage).

4. The plant is placed on a leaf so that the underground organs are directed downward. If the instance has big sizes, it can be broken in several places and secured in this form.

5. Plants are sewn on with white or green threads. First, the underground organs are secured, then the stem, leaf petioles, inflorescence axis, and pedicels.

6. There should be no wide stitches on the underside of the herbarium sheet; the knots are tightly tied on the front side of the plant.

7. After this, the herbarium sheet is picked up and slightly bent or turned over with the plant down. The parts of the plant lagging behind the sheet of paper are glued using paper “straws” (stripes of tracing paper 1.5 - 2 mm wide).

8. If necessary, the inflorescence or flower is “dressed” in an envelope made of tracing paper. The fruits can be placed in a special envelope, which is glued to the same sheet.

ATTENTION:

·When mounting the herbarium, use PVA glue or starch paste.

·Ink for filling labels must be waterproof.

How to store a herbarium?

Dried plants are very hygroscopic and quickly deteriorate due to dampness. Herbarium specimens should be stored in a dry, bright and ventilated room, placing folders with them in tightly closed cabinets. The selection of herbarium sheets in folders can be thematic (herbarium of cultivated plants, herbarium of weeds, etc.) or systematic. A systematic herbarium of families is arranged alphabetically or according to one of the accepted taxonomic systems.

As the collection increases, it is necessary to maintain a catalog where all information about the plants being collected is noted. The catalog can be on paper or in electronic form.

Herbariums often suffer from insects. There are many ways to combat them: treating collections with various insecticides, deep freezing, heating, etc. All of them require some preparation and certain conditions.

If your child is fascinated by botany and has a desire to learn more about the plant world, the herbarium is great way comprehensive development of the child and broadening his horizons from an early age.

A herbarium is a collection of dried plants with signatures on the labels. We invite parents and children to make a herbarium with their own hands to preserve its beauty for a long time autumn leaves and flowers.

For kids, it is recommended to make an autumn herbarium consisting of bright yellow and red leaves, creating on each page of the album beautiful composition. Making an album with children school age, it is better to sign each collected specimen, and dry the herbs with roots for clarity.

How to collect a herbarium

It is best to start collecting a herbarium with the simplest plants that are already known to the child. In this case, both tree leaves and flowers and herbs, such as chamomile, plantain, dandelion, are suitable for collecting herbarium.

Plants for the school herbarium must be collected in those places where they grow en masse, choosing specimens of a standard type and medium size.

Extract the whole plant, along with the roots, which will provide important information about the ecological characteristics of the herbs.

When collecting plants for the herbarium, ask your child to briefly note in his notebook where each of them was found.

How to dry leaves for a herbarium

Leaves for the herbarium can be dried in newspapers; to do this, you need to carefully straighten the leaves, giving the plant natural look, and arrange the herbs between the pages. Some plant leaves can be specially bent to show reverse side.

Stack the newspapers, with space between them. paper napkins or newspapers to absorb moisture, and weigh down the entire structure on top with something heavy, for example a couple of heavy books.

The collected herbs and flowers will take about two weeks to dry; newspapers and napkins that do not contain plants should be changed daily for dry ones so that the herbs do not rot.

Another way is to dry it with an iron; for this you need to wrap the plant in napkins and newspapers, then iron it several times with a not too hot iron. After this, you need to put the herbarium aside for several hours, and then iron it again, repeating the procedure several times until the plant is completely dry.

How to design an album for a herbarium

To design a herbarium, take A3 sheets and attach the dried plant, carefully gluing it with thin strips of white paper or sewing it with thread in several places. Nearby you can place the seeds in a bag and make a label where the name of the genus and species of the plant will be written in Russian and Latin languages, as well as the location and time of assembly.

Such a herbarium is lined with parchment sheets with your own hands and collected in a binder.

You can also glue or sew dried leaves and herbs onto landscape or cardboard sheets, which you can then place in clear files and binders.

As an option, leaves and flowers look convenient and beautiful in magnetic photo albums, which your child can decorate beautifully himself.

If the plant is too large, place it on the leaf in sections using part of the stem, leaf, flower, root and seed packets. You can glue a picture or photograph of the entire plant nearby, this is especially appropriate for a tree or shrub.

And if you place the dried plant in a frame under glass, you will get an excellent picture for interior decoration.

Children often love to pick flowers while walking and then admire the collected bouquets. However, collected flowers quickly wither, so they can be dried and collected as a herbarium together with a young naturalist who will help the child remember the names of herbs and flowers, as well as their appearance.

• The collection of plants (their parts) should be carried out dry, sunny weather after 11 am. Wet plants when harvested will deteriorate more quickly over time.
• To collect plants you will need: a notebook and pen (for timely recording of where the plants were collected), a spatula (spoon, knife or fork), a bag or a special herbarium folder.
• For a herbarium, plants or their parts (leaves, buds, etc.) of medium size and standard appearance are collected.
• If you pick up a plant by the roots, be sure to shake off the soil from its roots. Do not pick off dried parts of plants - do not change the true appearance of the plant.
• Straighten and arrange each plant or its parts carefully, even just to bring it home.
• Before drying, you can apply several secret manipulations. Do you want the leaves to become denser? Dip them in a solution of 20% PVA and water. Do you want blue and blue sheets did you keep the colors? Immerse them for less than 1 minute. in denatured alcohol.
• Methods for drying plants for herbarium:
  • Method 1. We place the plant between sheets of newspaper, spreading it out as much as possible - it should retain its natural appearance. Leaves and flowers, if present, should be fully visible. If there are several, turn some over reverse side. We shift newspapers with plants (with their parts) with dry newspapers or paper towels so that they absorb excess moisture. And then we put this stack under the press (under unnecessary books). It is important to change padding materials daily. It will take about 14 days to dry.
  • Method 2. You can put plants in newspapers between the glasses, and place books on top of the glass like a press.
  • Method 3. It involves drying under a special press for plants. The press can be made as two wooden frames with tension metal mesh. We place newspapers with plants between the frames.
  • Method 4. Plants can be dried with an iron. But remember that plants that are too dry risk losing their natural colors. We wrap the plant in paper and run an iron over it a couple of times. We repeat the procedure after a few hours. We do this until it dries.
  • Method 5. For a non-traditional herbarium or for interior decoration, you can dry plants in glycerin. The plants will retain their elasticity and shape, but the color will turn brown-green. Although you can then paint them with spray paint. Making a solution from hot water and glycerin in a ratio of 3:1. We pour it into a container so that it reaches a height of 6-10 cm. We cut the tip of the plant along 5 cm and lower it into the solution. We leave the plant to stand in the solution for several days. You can remove the plant when it darkens. The solution will have to be added.
  • Method 6. He will tell you how to dry a bud. Place the bud in a box of sand. After 2 weeks We make a hole at the bottom of the box so that the sand can spill out, and take out the bud. It is suitable for decoration. The buds can also be dried by lining the petals with cotton wool.
• For registration, we take thick sheets of A3 format. We attach each plant to a separate sheet with narrow white stripes. We apply glue only to their tips. You can attach plants with thin, white threads in several places.
• In the lower right corner there should be a label with information about the plant: Russian and Latin name, place of distribution, information about the time and place of its collection.
• Be sure to line the sheets with plants with parchment.
• Collect the entire herbarium in a folder. Her external design depends on your desire or school requirements.
• It is better to separate herbariums - design leaves separately, flowers separately, whole plants separately, cereals separately, etc.
• A herbarium can be a wonderful decorative element. You can make crafts, compositions, applications, panels, paintings from it, greeting cards, decorations for photo albums. For example, we fix a canvas or sheet of paper in a frame with a suitable background painted and attach plants in an artistic form. In this case, a label is not required.

Let your herbarium for a long time stores natural autumn colors and shapes. Good luck!

From birth we are surrounded by plants. At first we are surprised and happy about them. Then everything becomes familiar. Despite this, they continue to surprise us.

What is a herbarium

Herbarium is a collection amazing plants, herbs This word came from Latin word Herba - plant or herb. A herbarium is also called an organization that contains these same herbs and plants.

These plants are specially collected and then dried.

Plants are usually collected in summer and autumn, when there are a lot of various types vegetation.

Little explorers

From preschool age, young children are taught what a herbarium is. The teachers specially take them to a park or square where they can collect beautiful leaves different trees and bushes.

It's no surprise that children love collecting herbariums with their own hands. After all, acquaintance with nature leaves only positive emotions in the soul of any child. They collect not only leaves, but also beautiful colorful flowers.

Having understood what a herbarium is, children will learn what plants surround them, how they look and smell. They learn about size, color and smell.

It is best to start studying plants by collecting more or less known to the child: plantain, chamomile, dandelion, rowan leaves and clusters, clover, oak leaves, maple and so on.

Educators should explain to little youngsters that it is advisable not to touch single plants: perhaps this is a rare species, and if it is picked, it can cause harm.

Schoolchildren also collect the herbarium. In any student’s book you can find a leaf of a rowan tree, or a maple tree, or an oak tree, and so on. On a winter day, they remind them of warm summer and golden autumn, giving warmth and pleasing to the eye.

History of creation

According to historical data, the first collections of plants began to be created during the Renaissance. In Russia this time was a little late - in the eighteenth century.

There are currently approximately five hundred large herbarium institutions in the world. More than three hundred thousand species of herbs and plants are collected and dried in them.

The most numerous herbariums are in the British botanical garden. It is located in Kew. There are more than six million leaves, between which are dried plants. The large Russian botanical institute, which is located in the city of St. Petersburg, has more than five million sheets.

The Imperial Botanical Garden (St. Petersburg) has herbariums from all over the world, but most of them are Russian plants. The general herbarium contains about one hundred thousand species of plants, the Russian one contains twenty thousand species collected from all over Russia. Every year the collections are replenished with new species.

The great Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus youth was fascinated by the flora and fauna. He compiled a large collection of plants, which this moment is in a museum in London. Linnaeus's associates sold his collection to England while the king of Sweden was away. The king tried to return the valuable herbarium, but could not: the English ships sailed far away.

The Bunge collection (Russian herbarium) was also sold to France.

Since ancient times, people have distinguished between useful and harmful properties plants, but no one was involved in collecting their collections. The first herbariologist was Luca Ghini, a Pisan and Bolognese plant expert.

At the same time, Caspar Ratzenberg began collecting the herbarium. His collection is kept in the Royal Museum in Kassel and is considered the oldest. It contains 746 species of different plants.

Basic qualities

A plant herbarium must have the following qualities:

1. The plant must be dried on a straight plane, between sheets, under a certain pressure. It must not be allowed to dry out outdoors, otherwise the edges and veins of leaves and herbs will rise, forming unevenness, and gather in one lump, which will lead to rapid shedding of the plant.
2. Under the plant there must be its name - both scientific and folk. This is necessary in order to know which plant is dried under a particular leaf.
3. It is mandatory to indicate the time of collection or flowering of a particular plant. This is necessary in order to know exactly when the collection was made.
4. Specifying the location and location of the collection is also important. That is, it is necessary to indicate the name of the area, and also indicate whether it is a meadow, a forest, a swamp, or rocks, a steppe or a plain, and so on.
5. Indicating the prevalence of a plant is necessary in order to know whether it is rare or growing everywhere, whether it grows alone or in groups.
6. The soil on which the analyzed plant grows is determined: loamy, clayey, black soil, red soil, sand or other.

All this data is needed in order to know what kind of plant it is, how to dry it and store it in the future.

Drying

Plants, herbs, leaves, flowers need to be dried at a certain temperature, between sheets, using pressing. You can use a stack of books or some kind of planks as a press. Several plants can be attached to one sheet. In this case, they must be attached to the sheet with threads or paper strips.

Proper drying of plants allows them to be stored for a long time. But they must be protected from damage by various insects: bugs, butterflies, etc., as well as from rodents. If these pests are found, they must be thrown away. It is imperative to treat the plants with carbon disulfide vapor, mercuric chloride solution or ordinary naphthalene.

It is advisable to collect the herbarium in dry weather, otherwise the leaves and flowers will be more difficult to dry and store. It is necessary to collect fallen, half-dried plants, and not take them from the tree.

Drying plants usually takes 10-14 days. To make this process go faster, you can change the leaves on which the herbs are dried for dry ones more often.

Using an iron and paper, it is also possible to dry the herbarium. But you must take into account the ironing temperature: it should be minimal. But, unfortunately, with this drying method, the color of the material may change.

Some herbarium lovers also use a microwave oven. But this method can lead to uneven leaves.

For drying, you can also use regular glycerin: in a container with glycerin and hot water lower the plants. They must stay there for several days. Then they are taken out and set to dry. With this method, they dry faster, but become brown in color.

Proper drying allows the plant to be level and not bend down.

Interesting crafts from dried plants and flowers

To get a beautiful and unusual flower arrangement, you can use not only standard leaves and flowers, but also large buds, ears, petals different forms, seeds and nucleoli, pistils and so on. Using leaves and flowers of the same shape and color allows you to create an amazing symmetrical composition.

To strengthen flowers and leaves, PVA glue mixed with water is used.

Using dried compositions you can create unusual decorative panels, unique paintings. You can make photo albums out of them.

For example, to make a panel, you need to prepare a base: canvas, fabric, etc. On it, dried flowers create a picture that your imagination will suggest. They are glued to the base. If desired, you can paint it any color or leave it natural. After the creative process is completed, the panel is inserted into a frame.

To make bookmarks, flowers, spikelets, and so on are glued onto cardboard bookmark strips. A transparent file can be pasted on top of the composition, the edges are secured.

Thanks to all kinds flower arrangements The result is unique things that will decorate any interior of a house or apartment.

From dried flowers, herbs, leaves you can make original things that no one else has. You can hang them on the wall, put them on a shelf, or you can give them to family and friends. Undoubtedly, many people will like to receive a handmade card as a gift. Such a gift will be remembered for a lifetime and will be treasured.

Design of an album for a herbarium

An album at home can be designed in different ways. For example, you need to take an album and place collectibles on its pages. You can glue it with strips of paper or stitch it with thread. Some products can be secured together with the root, and the seeds and kernels of the plant are placed nearby in a bag. The names and collection times are written below. This will make a wonderful herbarium. A photo of the plant can be pinned nearby. Lay on top of the composition. All sheets are collected in a binder or stitched together along the edges.

Games with children using herbariums

It is very important for a child to do something with his own hands. And his parents should help him with this. For example, collecting plants and herbs can become a great hobby and pride for a child.

With the help of plant collections you can create different games for small children. The child is given the task of finding out what kind of leaf, flower, seed it is and where it grows. This can be not only herbs, but also currant, cucumber, tomato, cherry, carrot, beet leaves and so on. That is, what surrounds the baby in the garden and vegetable garden.

Having divided the collections by type, you can give the task: which plants are fruit, which are vegetable, which are indoor, which are spicy, which are weeds, and which usually grow in the forest.

You can also divide by color, size, smoothness.

When traveling to another area, you need to bring leaves, flowers and seeds exotic plants. They will allow the child to find out what herbs grow in a particular place.

Children really like to draw with leaves. For example, paint is applied to front part sheet, this side is pressed against a piece of paper. A leaf stamp with edges and all the veins remains on it. The child learns what a leaf looks like and learns to draw with the help of pencils and paints.

In this way you can draw not only individual leaves, but even entire pictures. Using leaves different colors, you can get interesting storylines. You can also put the leaves on a sheet of paper and spray paint on top. Then remove the leaves. The result will be silhouettes with specks.

Lotto is very interesting game for children. Cards for it can be made using dried and laminated leaves.

Herbarium in needlework

Some needlewomen to create unusual jewelry use a herbarium. Photos of these things are surprising and fascinating. For example, beautiful flowers folded into silicone molds that are filled epoxy resin. Everything must be done carefully so that no air remains. After a certain time, the resin hardens. The resulting blanks can be used to create unusual earrings, rings, necklaces and so on.

Some artists use herbariums to create their drawings. You get various animals, birds and more.

You can also use dried flowers in crafts such as decoupage.

How to make a herbarium correctly

The question is simple, but requires thorough study flora. At school, teachers teach children how to make a herbarium. To do this, students must figure out why this or that plant is needed. You can divide by topic all familiar herbs, flowers, shrubs and trees. For example:

• weeds;
• flowers growing in a flowerbed;
• inedible berry bushes, medicinal plants and many others.

Besides general characteristics, herbaria can be divided into food, technical and others. For example, in the herbarium medicinal plants You can include St. John's wort, oregano, coltsfoot, yarrow, celandine and others.

primary goal

Having become acquainted with what a herbarium is, many will understand what the main purpose of this action is - to obtain reliable information about all the plants that once existed and disappeared, and about those that exist now. People should know that plants are our friends and must be protected.

Proper design of the herbarium and its skillful storage will allow humanity to take care of the world around us.

Studying wildlife is an incredibly interesting activity. How beautiful, rich and diverse it is! There are countless known plants: trees, shrubs, herbs and flowers. Some of them are medicinal, while others, on the contrary, are aggressive and poisonous.

Of course, more colorful books, magazines, and publications with large, bright photographs of certain plants have been published. But it’s more interesting to look at the leaf itself than even the leaf itself. high quality photo. But not all plants can be grown at home, and it will not be possible to keep the leaves alive for a long time. However, there is a great way to create your own “green collection” - a herbarium.

What is a herbarium?

What is the meaning of the word herbarium? This is a collection of dried plants. It can include not only leaves, but also flowers, tree bark, stems and generally any parts of the plant. There is another meaning of this word. This is the name of the whole building, which is a repository for herbal collections.

The origin of the word herbarium (herbarium) is Latin, it is a derivative of herba - grass. The very first herbal collection appeared in Italy back in the 16th century. The name of the first “herbarist” was Luca Ghini.

The value of herbariums is great: they can be stored for a very long time, preserving the “biological picture” of the area for posterity. This is, of course, in a global sense. And if we talk about a child who makes a herbarium, for example, for school, then he:

• get an idea of ​​the diversity of plants in your city (locality);
• learn to recognize plants, distinguish useful herbs from poisonous;
• When compiling a collection, he will gain skills in collecting and drying plants, and designing a catalogue.

When and how to collect materials?

The first question that a person who decides to collect a herbarium faces is how to make preparations for it, what to collect and when.

Firstly, there are several general rules, relevant regardless of what the herbarium will be made of: leaves of trees, herbs, or whether flowers will be dried in the herbarium:

1. It is important to collect plants in dry weather, when there has been no rain for a couple of days, otherwise it will be difficult to dry the leaves;
2. Branches cannot be broken; they must be cut with a knife;
3. A proper herbarium includes those parts of plants by which the latter can be recognized (it is best not only flowers or leaves, but several elements at once);
4. You need to choose healthy, living plants that have not dried out from the heat;
5. When compiling a herbarium, it is worth taking several copies of plants (you never know - the foxes will be torn, lost, damaged during processing or design).

Of course, these are not all the rules for assembling a real herbarium, but for such a task as making a herbarium for school, this will be quite enough.

Be sure to write down where, when, and at what time of year each exhibit was collected.

How to dry the material?

When figuring out how to make a herbarium from leaves, you need to become familiar with drying technology. There are several options, but the optimal one in this case would be the following: place a copy between two sheets of paper, additionally separate such “envelopes” with paper, and place them under a press in a ventilated place (on a windowsill). How to make a herbarium from flowers? Exists special method- drying in sand. It is necessary to wash the river or sea sand clean, place the exhibits on a sheet of paper or in a box with a flat bottom and fill them up. In this case, the petals will not be damaged.

The simplest solution to the drying issue is to put the material in a book. However, in this case, both the plants and the book may be damaged. Therefore, if you are puzzled by how to make a herbarium correctly, such drying is not recommended.

“Ready” are leaves or flowers that do not bend when lifted by the stem.

Great, the material is ready! How to beautifully design a herbarium?

Herbarium design

If you start making a herbarium with your own hands, then be prepared for labor-intensive work. Dried plants are very fragile and easy to crumble, so you need to act carefully.

There are several options for how to design a herbarium. The first is to put the exhibits in a photo album with sticky pages. In such books, usually from each sheet you can separate the film, under which (on a sticky base) the photographs are laid out. In our case, these will be parts of the plant. The second is to put the leaves on thick paper (you can purchase special herbarium paper), gluing them in the middle onto double sided tape or glue. With this design, the collection will be more susceptible to spoiling factors.

You can buy a herbarium today. This does not mean at all that you will purchase a ready-made collection. There are special kits that contain everything you need to collect a herbarium - a press for drying, glue, herbarium paper, paints and a brush for designing the work.

Regardless of which method is chosen, some form of label with the date and location of the plant's collection must be added to each page. An excellent addition would be photographs of the specimen from where it was obtained, or of the whole plant. It would be interesting to attach a short note about a representative of nature - where it lives, when it blooms, whether it is useful or harmful to humans.

Compiling a herbarium is a very exciting process. Firstly, it helps to remember what plants look like, and much more better than any books. Secondly, it teaches you to be careful and attentive to details. And, of course, the design of the collection itself is a very creative process.