What is a herbarium and how to make it correctly?

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

What is a herbarium?

Herbarium - a collection of amazing plants, herbs. This word comes from the Latin word Herba - a plant or grass. Herbarium also refers to the organization where these herbs and plants are kept.

These plants are collected specifically, and then dried.

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

Small researchers

To small children from a preschool age explain, that such a herbarium. Educators specially take them to the park, the park, where you can collect beautiful leaves of different trees and shrubs.

It is not surprising that children like to collect the herbarium with their own hands. After all, acquaintance with nature leaves only positive emotions in the soul of any child. They collect not only leaflets, but also beautiful colorful flowers.

Realizing what a herbarium is, children learn what plants surround them, how they look and smell. They learn what size, color and smell are.

The study of plants is best to begin with the collection of 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 small YUNNANTS that solitary plants should not be touched: perhaps it is a rare species, and if it is broken, it can be damaged.

Then the educators introduce them to how to make a herbarium and properly dry, so that the plants long for the eye, do not lose their color and do not fall off.

Harvest herbarium and schoolchildren. Any student in the book can find a piece of mountain ash, or maple, or oak, and so on. On a winter day they remind them of the warm summer and the 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.

At the moment, there are about five hundred major herbarium institutions in the world. They collected and dried more than three hundred thousand species of herbs and plants.

The most numerous herbariums are in the British Botanical Garden. He is in the city of Kew. Here there are more than six million sheets, between which the plants are dried. In a large Russian botanical institute, which is located in the city of St. Petersburg, there are more than five million sheets.

In the Imperial Botanical Garden (the city of St. Petersburg) there are herbariums from around the world, but most of them are Russian plants. In general, the herbarium contains about one hundred thousand species of plants, in Russian - twenty thousand species collected from all over Russia. Each year collections are replenished with new species.

The great Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus was fond of flora and fauna from a young age. He compiled a large collection of plants, which is currently in a museum in London. Linnea's companions sold his collection to England, while the King of Sweden was absent. The king tried to return a valuable herbarium, but could not: English ships swam away.

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

Since ancient times, people have distinguished the useful and harmful properties of plants, but no one has been collecting their collections. The first herbarium scientist was Luca Gini - a Pisan and Bolognese connoisseur of plants.

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

Key Features

Herbarium plants must have the following qualities:

1. The plant should be dried on a straight line, between sheets, under a certain press. Do not allow it to dry in the open air, otherwise the edges and veins of the leaves and grass will rise, forming irregularities, and will be collected in one lump, which will lead to a rapid dropping of the plant.
2. Under the plant must necessarily be its name - both scientific and popular. This is necessary in order to know which plant is dried under one or another sheet.
3. It is mandatory to specify the time of collection or flowering of a plant. This is necessary in order to know exactly when the collection was made.
4. Indication of the location and location of the collection is also important. That is, it is necessary to indicate the name of the terrain, and also whether it is meadow, or forest, marsh, or rocks, steppe or plain, and so on.
5. Indication of the prevalence of a plant is necessary in order to know whether it is rare or growing everywhere, grows alone or group.
6. The soil on which the analyzed plant grows is determined: loamy, clayey, chernozem, red soil, sand or other.

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

Drying

Dry plants, herbs, leaves, flowers are needed at a certain temperature, between sheets, using pressing. As a press, you can use a stack of books or some plaques. Several plants can be attached on one sheet. At the same time they must be fastened on 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 spoilage by various insects: beetles, butterflies and so on, as well as from rodents. When these pests are found, they must be discarded. It is necessary to treat plants with carbon disulphide vapor, a solution of sulphate or ordinary naphthalene.

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

The drying of plants usually takes 10-14 days. To make this process go faster, you can change the leaflets, where the herbs are dried, to dry more often.

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

Some fans of the herbarium use a microwave. But this method can lead to unevenness of the leaves.

For drying, you can use ordinary glycerin: plants with glycerine and hot water are lowered. There they have to stay a few days. Then they are removed and put to dry. With this method, they dry faster, but get a brown color.

Proper drying allows the plant to be flat and not tilt 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 of different shapes, seeds and nucleoli, pistils and so on. Using identical in form and color of leaves and flowers, you can create an amazing symmetrical composition.

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

With the help of dried compositions you can create unusual decorative panels, unique pictures. From them you can make bookmarks for books, photo albums.

For example, to make a panel, you need to prepare the base: canvas, fabric and other. On it from the dried flowers there is a picture, which will prompt fantasy. They are glued to the base. If desired, you can paint in any color or leave a natural. After the end of the creative process, the panel is inserted into the frame.

To make bookmarks, on cardboard strips for a bookmark paste flowers, spikelets and so on. Over the composition, you can paste a transparent file, the edges are fixed.

Thanks to all sorts of floral compositions, unique things are produced 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. They can be hung on the wall, put on a shelf, or you can give it to family and friends. Undoubtedly, many will like to receive a free gift card made with their own hands. Such a gift will be remembered for life and will be appreciated.

Album design for herbarium

Album at home can be issued in different ways. For example, you need to take an album, on its sheets place your collection items. You can glue with strips of paper or thread. Some products can be attached together with the root, and next to the bag are the seeds and nucleoli of the plant. The names and time of collection are written down below. Get a wonderful herbarium. The photo of the plant can be fixed next to it. A parchment paper is laid over the composition . All sheets are assembled into a binder or sewed together at the edges.

Games with children using herbals

It is very important for a child to do something with his own hands. And parents should help him in this. For example, the collection of plants and herbs can become a strong passion and pride for the baby.

With the help of plant collections, you can create different games for young children. The child is given the task to find out what kind of leaf, flower, seed and where it grows. It can be not only herbs, but also leaves of currants, cucumber, tomatoes, cherries, carrots, beets and so on. That is what surrounds the kid in the garden and in the garden.

Dividing the collections by types, you can give the task: what plants - fruit, what - vegetable, what - room, what - spicy, what - weeds, and which usually grow in the forest.

You can also divide by color, by size, by smoothness.

When traveling to another area you need to bring leaves, flowers and seeds of exotic plants. They will let the child know which herbs grow in one place or another.

Very much children like to draw with leaflets. For example, paint is applied to the front of the sheet, this side is pressed against a piece of paper. On it remains a stamp leaflet with edges and with all veins. The child learns how the sheet looks, learns to draw already with the help of pencils and paints.

In this way, you can draw not only individual leaves, but even whole pictures. Using leaves of different colors, you can get interesting storylines. You can also put the leaves on a sheet of paper, top with a spray of paint. Then delete the leaves. It turns out silhouettes with specks.

Lotto is a very interesting game for children. Cards for it can be made with the help of dried and laminated leaves.

Herbarium in needlework

Some needlewomen use the herbarium to create unusual ornaments. Photos of these things are surprising and fascinating. For example, beautiful flowers are added to silicone molds, which are filled with 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 the herbarium to create their own drawings. Various animals, birds and other are obtained.

You can also use dried flowers in a kind of needlework, like decoupage.

How to make a herbarium

The question is simple, but requires a thorough study of the plant world. At school, teachers teach children how to make a herbarium. To do this, students must understand what this or that plant is for. You can divide by subject all the familiar herbs, flowers, bushes and trees. For example:

• Weeds;
• Flowers growing on a flower bed;
• Inedible berry bushes, medicinal plants and many others.

In addition to the general characteristics, the herbarium can be divided into food, technical and others. For example, in the herbarium of herbs, you can include St. John's wort, oregano, mother-and-stepmother, 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 were and disappeared, and about those that are now. People should know that plants are our friends and must be protected.

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