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In the Herbarium: The Hidden World of Collecting and Preserving Plants
How herbaria illuminate the past and future of plant science
Collections of preserved plant specimens, known as herbaria, have existed for nearly five centuries. These pressed and labeled plants have been essential resources for scientists, allowing them to describe and differentiate species and to document and research plant changes and biodiversity over time—including changes related to climate.
Maura C. Flannery tells the history of herbaria, from the earliest collections belonging to such advocates of the technique as sixteenth-century botanist Luca Ghini, to the collections of poets, politicians, and painters, and to the digitization of these precious specimens today. She charts the growth of herbaria during the Age of Exploration, the development of classification systems to organize the collections, and herbaria’s indispensable role in the tracking of climate change and molecular evolution. Herbaria also have historical, aesthetic, cultural, and ethnobotanical value—these preserved plants can be linked to the Indigenous peoples who used them, the collectors who sought them out, and the scientists who studied them.
This book testifies to the central role of herbaria in the history of plant study and to their continued value, not only to biologists but to entirely new users as gardeners, artists, students, and citizen-scientists.
Collections of preserved plant specimens, known as herbaria, have existed for nearly five centuries. These pressed and labeled plants have been essential resources for scientists, allowing them to describe and differentiate species and to document and research plant changes and biodiversity over time—including changes related to climate.
Maura C. Flannery tells the history of herbaria, from the earliest collections belonging to such advocates of the technique as sixteenth-century botanist Luca Ghini, to the collections of poets, politicians, and painters, and to the digitization of these precious specimens today. She charts the growth of herbaria during the Age of Exploration, the development of classification systems to organize the collections, and herbaria’s indispensable role in the tracking of climate change and molecular evolution. Herbaria also have historical, aesthetic, cultural, and ethnobotanical value—these preserved plants can be linked to the Indigenous peoples who used them, the collectors who sought them out, and the scientists who studied them.
This book testifies to the central role of herbaria in the history of plant study and to their continued value, not only to biologists but to entirely new users as gardeners, artists, students, and citizen-scientists.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published May 30, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 6, 2023
A well written and interesting overview of the history of herbarium. Goes from the 16th century up to the present and covers many of the major players in the field of collecting and preserving plants.
A good read for anyone interested in plants and for those curious to learn about a new subject. Might even get you to start your own herbarium as it is a cheap and easy hobby to indulge in.
A good read for anyone interested in plants and for those curious to learn about a new subject. Might even get you to start your own herbarium as it is a cheap and easy hobby to indulge in.
September 24, 2023
Accessible overview of the history of herbariums. Inevitably focused on colonial collections.
July 15, 2026
I love that everything, even science and the display of specimens can have an aesthetic component if you're very involved enough and just give it your all. The practice of having an herbarium involves the preservation of collected plants for a curated collection.
This book taught me a new word: Ethnobotany! Ethnobotany is defined as "the scientific study of how people of a particular culture and region make use of native plants for medicine, food, shelter, and spiritual rituals. It bridges botany, anthropology, and pharmacology to record traditional ecological knowledge." basically the physical uses and the spiritual and indigenous feelings on plant
ecological relationships. I'm obsessed and I'm looking into books to read on this specific topic.
The study of ethnobotany brings with it a lot of issues like the collection of herbs with colonialism and slavery. This includes the labor that found the samples. But this also encourages decolonizing a collection by illuminating the area and culture of origin. The amount of red tape you have to contend with does make it hard to collect in an effort to prevent appropriation or deforestation, but can make the process of cataloguing or preserving a specific plant very difficult and nearly not worth the effort to most people. Plus it's good practice to take several samples of one plant for later trades and to introduce into other collections.
Embroidery and paper crafts are great for those interested in herb preservation. Dried flowers work well for this craft and as reference for embroidery. This is also how women could justify learning botany, since most science would have been improper to study, but using the excuse of embroidery or paper crafts is a great work around.
There's also a bit of info on economic botany. This has ties to political control, spices and dyes in trade as well as a call back to colonialism and slavery. The biggest problem here is civil unrest, war, or resources to preserve plants, as well as the problem with getting unfamiliar plants verified, identified, and mounted.
Species range increases overtime with digitized collections. This has it's benefits, like durability and protection (so long as you have a secured digital file backed up this prevents moisture or mold or pests ruining the collection), and it's downsides, not having the physical plant to look at and admire the samples to check for authenticity. There was one guy mentioned that used his own funds over many many years at a university to curate an amazing collection. When he retired from the school he took it with him. The school did not appreciate this and sued him for the rights to the collection, though they did at least compensate him for the herbarium. I do feel that was little consolation to him, it was his life's work and as this book introduces to us, is much a work of art as it is a scientific collection. I just know he was absolutely heart broken.
Local biases for those collecting due to it being the easier to collect specimens near their own home. I really love the idea of an herbarium as basically just a dry garden. Love this book! I definitely want a copy of this for my collection!
This book taught me a new word: Ethnobotany! Ethnobotany is defined as "the scientific study of how people of a particular culture and region make use of native plants for medicine, food, shelter, and spiritual rituals. It bridges botany, anthropology, and pharmacology to record traditional ecological knowledge." basically the physical uses and the spiritual and indigenous feelings on plant
ecological relationships. I'm obsessed and I'm looking into books to read on this specific topic.
The study of ethnobotany brings with it a lot of issues like the collection of herbs with colonialism and slavery. This includes the labor that found the samples. But this also encourages decolonizing a collection by illuminating the area and culture of origin. The amount of red tape you have to contend with does make it hard to collect in an effort to prevent appropriation or deforestation, but can make the process of cataloguing or preserving a specific plant very difficult and nearly not worth the effort to most people. Plus it's good practice to take several samples of one plant for later trades and to introduce into other collections.
Embroidery and paper crafts are great for those interested in herb preservation. Dried flowers work well for this craft and as reference for embroidery. This is also how women could justify learning botany, since most science would have been improper to study, but using the excuse of embroidery or paper crafts is a great work around.
There's also a bit of info on economic botany. This has ties to political control, spices and dyes in trade as well as a call back to colonialism and slavery. The biggest problem here is civil unrest, war, or resources to preserve plants, as well as the problem with getting unfamiliar plants verified, identified, and mounted.
Species range increases overtime with digitized collections. This has it's benefits, like durability and protection (so long as you have a secured digital file backed up this prevents moisture or mold or pests ruining the collection), and it's downsides, not having the physical plant to look at and admire the samples to check for authenticity. There was one guy mentioned that used his own funds over many many years at a university to curate an amazing collection. When he retired from the school he took it with him. The school did not appreciate this and sued him for the rights to the collection, though they did at least compensate him for the herbarium. I do feel that was little consolation to him, it was his life's work and as this book introduces to us, is much a work of art as it is a scientific collection. I just know he was absolutely heart broken.
Local biases for those collecting due to it being the easier to collect specimens near their own home. I really love the idea of an herbarium as basically just a dry garden. Love this book! I definitely want a copy of this for my collection!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews