[PCA] NEWS: A new use for 200 year old pressed plants

MAHaidet at blm.gov MAHaidet at blm.gov
Tue Dec 28 09:44:47 CST 2010



http://www.scienceline.org/2010/12/a-new-use-for-200-year-old-pressed-plants/

A new use for 200-year-old pressed plants
Ecologists are looking to herbaria, the world’s historical libraries of
preserved plants, to see how plants are reacting to global warming

If you’ve ever pressed a local wildflower in the pages of the family
dictionary, you’ve taken part in a long and venerable tradition.
Generations of scientists and amateur wildlife enthusiasts have collected
plants, fungi, and algae and mounted them onto sheets of paper to preserve
them. Many of these sheets now serve as historical records in vast archives
called herbaria. Some herbaria hold specimens gathered more than 200 years
ago; most started with the personal collection of one dedicated person who
amassed thousands of plants. Carl Linnaeus, the 18th-century botanist who
created the scientific naming system of species we use today, collected
14,300 specimens that are still kept in The Linnean Society of London’s
herbarium.

Megan Haidet
National Collection Curator
Seeds of Success
Bureau of Land Management
202-912-7233
www.nps.gov/plants/sos/


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