Table of Contents
Introduction:
Herbaria is a plural word of herbarium which is defined as a collection of preserved plant species and their data for scientific study. The herbarium is essentially an organized library of dry plant species. The word herbarium is formed by an herb which is known as a small plant. Plant species may be a small part of a plant or a whole plant. We will place our dried plant parts or plant species on a sheet of herbarium paper which is normally thicker than others and beneath the diagram on the right-hand side, we will mention some details like the scientific name of species, common name, family, date of collection, name of the collector.
Depending upon species we will store some of them in alcohol or boxes other than herbarium. The plant specimens in the herbarium are used to know their taxonomy, identification, and also to know about the aesthetic value of some exotic and indigenous species. The specimens are also used as a reference to know their value and in some cases, they preserve some pathogens that have attacked plant parts or whole plants from which we can get to know the physical form of disease affected plant or its parts. There are 3000 herbaria’s in the world; almost all of these are mostly used by mycologists, plant pathologists, taxonomists, and health scientists.
Overview:
The herbarium is defined as the collection of dry plant specimens and their data for reference or organized library of plant specimens. Herbaria are plural forms of the herbarium. In herbarium, we will preserve the whole plant or plant parts. Other than the herbarium method there are several other methods for preserving like alcohol, in boxes depending upon the plant specimens but most likely we will use herbarium widely. If the plant is big which we want to preserve and attach to the herbarium, in that case, we will take plant parts and dry them after that they will be placed in the herbarium.
On the herbarium sheet or herbarium booklet aside from the specimen, we will also mention some details related to plant species which are useful in the identification and referral process. Those details are the scientific or botanical names of plant species, common names, dates of collection, family names of species, and names of the collector. These details should be mentioned on the same sheet of dried species at the bottom of the right-hand side.
The first herbarium was made by Luca Ghini an Italian physician and botanist of the sixteenth century during the drastic development seen in a renaissance in Italy, documentation of the first herbarium is also credited which is called hortus siccus in the Italian language. Luca Ghini founded the world’s first two botanical gardens. The first was established in Pisa in 1543 and founded the second herbarium in Padua in 1545. Herbariums revolved around the world used and invented by scientists for their studies and reference. After some days herbariums are also introduced in universities for the benefit of students which helps them to identify the plant species and their data.
Uses of herbarium/ herbaria:
Herbarium collection has adverse significance and value to science and has numerous benefits. The first step is collecting them, storing them, and then making studies on the herbarium. The taxonomic studies will be beneficial in these ways
- Identification and study of different plant species
- Storing plant species for future study
- Provides aids in systematic studies
- Essential for the study of plant taxonomy
- Geographic distributions of plant species are studied
- Can study the aesthetic value of species
- Able to study plant extinct and indigenous species
- Identification of pathogens affects plant species in plant pathogenesis.
- They may also be used to case study the rare species.
- A quick source of reference
Some herbaria in the world are:
Royal botanical garden located in Kew, England
Central national herbarium located in Calcutta
Herbarium technique:
There are certain steps to be followed for having a perfect herbarium.
Collection:-
The-is is the first step for the herbarium. The plant materials are collected. While collecting plant species we should keep some points in mind in a scientific and aesthetic way. The plant should be complete, meaning they must have fully grown leaves and complete inflorescence. Diseased plants should be avoided. While removing plants from the soil we have to be careful that the root system should completely come out without any damage to the main root. After collecting them, place them in a plastic bag to preserve moisture.
Drying:- drying should start right after the collection of plant species to avoid forming fungi or some other diseases. The plant species should be pressed in normal newspaper folders and overlapping should be avoided. These folders are then placed under some weighted things but not overweight. To avoid the decaying of plant species we should change the newspaper respectively from time to time. While placing them in the newspaper try to avoid folding on leaves or flowers.
Labelling or stitching: – after drying the species take the herbarium booklet to place one plant species in one sheet only to avoid stitching multiple species on a single page. While attaching species remember that all parts are clearly visible without any unnecessary folding. After attaching, enter the data on the right-hand lower side. Data that should be entered are the scientific name of species, the common name of plant species, family name, date of collection, name of the collector. The sheets are arranged according to genus and classification. The primary function of the herbarium is the identification and taxonomic classification and the secondary function of the herbarium is that it is easy to learn or identify for studying.
Importance of chapter in Neet:-
The herbarium is one of the important topics in the biology part for NEET. One cannot complete their biological study by escaping the herbarium which is a basic chapter and is expected to get five basic questions from this chapter like the list of herbariums in the country or world and the process of herbarium which are basic but can let you score more marks from this easy chapter. There are benefits of learning about herbarium in which we get to know the aesthetic value and know the identification for further studies. Easy to learn and identify in our research. We can also learn about exotic and indigenous species which are rarely available for study. So don’t neglect this chapter thinking it is easy.
Overall view of this topic is that it is easy to learn which gives us a good amount of marks in our competitive exams. The her-barium is one of the important terms that we find in our biology branch without knowledge of this topic and chapter the biology won’t be fulfilled. The herbarium is a collection of dried plant species which are used for future study and it will be an easy way of referencing the plant species. It is mainly used for mycologists, plant pathologists, and taxonomists mainly. By using her-barium we can learn the data about exotic and indigenous species. We can also identify some rare species and learn data. For plant pathologists, the plants will be more useful for the identification of diseased plants to identify the pathogen and diseases. The her-barium is a library of dried species for quick reference. It’s the overall review of this topic.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Que 1:What is herbaria and herbarium?
Ans: Herbarium is an art of a collection of dried plant specimens for quick study and reference. Herbarium plural form is known as herbaria.
Que 2: What are the uses of herbarium?
Ans: Herbarium collection has adverse significance and value to science and has numerous benefits. The first step is collecting them, storing them, and then making studies on the herbarium. The taxonomic studies will be beneficial in these ways
- Identification and study of different plant species
- Storing plant species for future study
- Provides aids in systematic studies
- Essential for the study of plant taxonomy
- Geographic distributions of plant species are studied
- Can study the aesthetic value of species
- Able to study plant extinct and indigenous species
- Identification of pathogens affects plant species in plant parthenogenesis.
- They may also be used to case study the rare species.
- A quick source of reference
Que 3: Who made the first her-barium?
Ans: The first herbarium was made by Luca Ghini an Italian physician and botanist of the sixteenth century during the drastic development seen in a renaissance in Italy, documentation of the first herbarium is also credited which is called hortus siccus in the Italian language.
