According
to Fosberg and Sachet (1965) a modern herbarium is a great filing system for
information about plants, primarily in form of actual specimen and secondarily
in form of published information, pictures and recorded notes.
Functional
aspect of Herbarium-
1.
Herbarium serves as an invaluable
conservatory of plant material of flora, collected from various regions of the
world. It provides basic material for study of flora and vegetation of
different places or regions. It acts as evidence of the vegetation of a region which
may be destroyed due to some natural process.
2.
Specimens carry important data
about habitat, habit, local names, color of flowers, local uses, frequency of
plant, association, etc. Thus in such way herbarium provides data for
botanical, ethno-botanical and phyto-geographical studies.
3.
It acts as important aid in
teaching botany to students in form illustrations of locally available plant
species in preserved conditions.
5.
Some time herbarium specimens may
useful in study of anatomy, palynology and chemo-taxonomical studies.
6.
It also provide data related to
place of occurrence, colour of flowers, flowering and fruiting period,
embryology, cytology, ecology and ethno-botanical aspects.
Different
Types of Herbarium:
1.
Collection of different parts of
the world.
2.
Herbarium related with drugs and
medicines.
3.
Herbaria of University and
Colleges contain specimens only of interest for teaching or as per the syllabus
and research.
4.
Herbaria of Agriculture Colleges
and universities include specimens of crop plants and weeds of cultivated
fields.
Method
of preparing a Herbarium:
a)
Plant collection- Plant
collection should be collected from different localities and habitats in every stage
of their growth and reproduction. Specimen (at least 6) containing all possible
plant parts for easy identification is very important for authentic taxonomic
study. At the time of collection tagging is important to understand place,
date, flowering period, flowering colour, etc.
b)
Pressing & drying of plants-
Blotting sheets are normally used for plant pressing. Plants should be fold in
various shapes as ‘V’, ‘N’ to avoid folding and overlapping. Plants should be
pressed for 24 or 48 hours & changing should be done every after 2-3 days.
c)
Mounting and labeling of the
specimens- After drying plants should be mounted on herbarium sheet of 29cm X
42 cm size. Labeling is essential to get all possible information about the
plant.
d)
Storage of Herbarium sheets- The
mounted plant specimens or herbarium sheets may be stored in specially
constructed herbarium cases or in steel cabinets. They should be arranged
according to known system of classification. In India & most of other
countries Bentham & Hooker’s system of classification is being used.
Chemicals like 2% Mercuric chloride should be utilized to avoid mold fungi
& insects. Moth balls, Napthalene flakes may also be placed in Herbarium
cabinets.
Requirements:
Field
equipments-
i.
Digger & pruning knife
ii. Tags/Paper
slips with threads
iii.
Vasculum
iv.
Field Note Book
v. Plant
Press or folders
Some important Herbarium of the world:
Sr. No.
|
Name of
Herbarium
|
Date
of establishment
|
Major
contribution
|
1.
|
RBG, Kew,
London
|
1853
|
65,00,000
specimens
|
2.
|
Museum
National Histoire Naturelle Laboratoire de Phanerogamie, Paris, France
|
1635
|
50,00,000
specimens
|
3.
|
New York
BG, US
|
1801
|
30,00,000
sheets
|
4.
|
Harvard
University, Philadelphia Academy of Science, Philadelphia, US
|
1812
|
10,00,000
sheets
|
Some of Indian Herbarium
Sr. No.
|
Name of
Herbarium
|
Date
of establishment
|
Major
contribution
|
1.
|
IBG,
Calcutta
|
1793
|
25,00,000
sheets
|
2.
|
FRI,
Dehradun
|
1874
|
2,00,000
sheets
|
3.
|
Agriculture
College Herbarium, Coimbatore
|
1874
|
2,00,000
sheets
|
4.
|
NBRI,
Lucknow
|
1948
|
1,15,000
|
Catalogue of
Indian Herbaria
India with only 2.4% of the land area, accounts for
7-8% of the recorded species of the world primarily due to varied ecological
and altitudinal conditions. This part of the world is a home about 1,01,649
vascular plants species of which 19,371 species are endemic to this region and
5447 species are reported to be endangered. Out of the 34 biodiversity hotspots
of the world, four hotspots namely Himalayas, Indo-Burma, Mountains of South China
and Western Ghats and Sri Lanka are existing in this region
which together harbor about 41,415 species of which 16,709 are endemic to these
hotspots. India and China are also recognized as two of the
seventeen mega-diversity centres of the world.
Herbaria,
being the repositories of plants, provide the basis for an analytical study of
the vegetation of a region for evolving strategies for effective conservation
and sustainable utilization. It may even be possible that herbaria may provide
the source for learning the Meteria Medica of the local people, a knowledge
which might have evolved by the local people practicing for thousands of years.
The discovery of new active principles from the plant resources draws immediate
attention to herbaria where the specimens could be seen for recognisation so as
to identify specimens in nature for collection, utilization and further
research.
In
view of the above, one of the prerequisites of the countries rich in
biodiversity is to preserve the existing herbarium specimens and the knowledge
contained in them and also to
enhance the collections so that basic information gets created. The collections
of specimens should also be accompanied with ample and accurate field data and
additional information on various aspects including the knowledge associated
with the genetic resource of the region. As long as the Convention of
Biological Diversity (CBD) is mandatory, acceptance among the signatory
countries (having recognized herbaria) there is urgent need to develop linkages
among the countries at inter-institutional and interdisciplinary levels: Since
a herbarium is one of the major components which provides adequate information
in order to conserve the biological diversity of any country,
international agencies, well developed national organizations
may help strengthening regional, infrastructure facilities, capacity building
and dissemination of the knowledge.
There are approximately 3,990 recognized herbaria in the world today,
with about 10,000 associated curators and biodiversity specialists.
Collectively the world's herbaria contain an estimated 350,000,000 specimens
that document the earth's vegetation for the past 400 years. India and its
neighbouring countries namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives,
Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, and Sri Lanka have over
14 million herbarium specimens with elements new to science as types over 50
thousand. India stands 19th in position among the
herbaria of the world for the repository of over 3.5 million specimens
representing more than 23 thousand type specimens. Interestingly, except on a
common web site and in bound pages of Index Herbariorum being
published by New York Botanical
Garden, USA supporting/collaborating/ coordinating viewpoint of
various herbaria does not appear accessible.
An insight of repository of herbaria of India and neighboring
countries shows that several of the herbaria have same area of floristic
exploration and representation of specimens. Even in country such as People's
Republic of China over 80 herbaria have common field of contribution,
45 herbaria of India reveal common area of jurisdiction particularly that
of different educational institutions. It may be perhaps due to certain
objective behind the development of a herbarium. Thus it becomes important to
develop linkages to avoid duplication of the subject, site and objectives for
meeting the common goal, it will also save time and energy.
More herbaria should be established in the various locations of
this region of the world to house local collections and the holdings in the
existing ones augmented for a better assessment of the region's plant resources
in order to help resource management, which is needed more than ever before in
the present environmental crisis.
There are 94 herbaria has been
present in India Acronyms with asterisk indicate that these herbaria are
recognized by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT), New York
Botanical Garden, USA and are published in the INDEX HERBARIORUM, an
index of herbaria of the world. Out of 94 herbaria in India 59 are
recognized.
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