College of the Pacific Herbarium
Poster Number
15
Format
Poster Presentation
Faculty Mentor Name
Mark Brunell
Faculty Mentor Department
Biological Sciences
Abstract/Artist Statement
The College of the Pacific Herbarium collects and maintains plant collections mainly from the Western United States area, but also includes European and Central Asian specimens. The major goals of the College of the Pacific Herbarium includes curating and maintaining dried plant collections, electronically data basing those collections, making them available on the Consortium of California Herbaria, and updating plant names and classifications. The herbarium also actively exchanges with the New York Botanical and other herbaria. Plants collected from field work are dried in the drying cabinet before being mounted onto mounting paper. The live plants are placed in between newspapers and then placed inside folders. The folders containing the plants are bound together and compressed. The drying cabinet contains a vent that slowly dries the plants without damaging its shape and form. The plants are left until completely desiccated. Once dried out, the preserved specimens are glued onto mounting paper and stamped with an accession number. Before entering the database cabinets, the specimens are placed inside a heavy duty freezer, which naturally kills any harmful insects. Even after being placed inside database cabinets, the plants are constantly monitored. The specimens are digitally databased and organized by their species, family, and subspecies. The database contains additional information including updated species names, collected country, habitat, coordinates, elevation, collectors, and locality. Even after being databased, the information is updated as scientist make new findings. In the future, the Pacific Herbarium could provide important information on a wide range of studies. People would be able to reference plants in order to update taxonomy and study botanics, invasive species, and plant and population trends. Furthermore, plants may be used to develop new cure for diseases and improve food production.
Location
DeRosa University Center, Ballroom
Start Date
30-4-2016 1:30 AM
End Date
30-4-2016 3:30 PM
College of the Pacific Herbarium
DeRosa University Center, Ballroom
The College of the Pacific Herbarium collects and maintains plant collections mainly from the Western United States area, but also includes European and Central Asian specimens. The major goals of the College of the Pacific Herbarium includes curating and maintaining dried plant collections, electronically data basing those collections, making them available on the Consortium of California Herbaria, and updating plant names and classifications. The herbarium also actively exchanges with the New York Botanical and other herbaria. Plants collected from field work are dried in the drying cabinet before being mounted onto mounting paper. The live plants are placed in between newspapers and then placed inside folders. The folders containing the plants are bound together and compressed. The drying cabinet contains a vent that slowly dries the plants without damaging its shape and form. The plants are left until completely desiccated. Once dried out, the preserved specimens are glued onto mounting paper and stamped with an accession number. Before entering the database cabinets, the specimens are placed inside a heavy duty freezer, which naturally kills any harmful insects. Even after being placed inside database cabinets, the plants are constantly monitored. The specimens are digitally databased and organized by their species, family, and subspecies. The database contains additional information including updated species names, collected country, habitat, coordinates, elevation, collectors, and locality. Even after being databased, the information is updated as scientist make new findings. In the future, the Pacific Herbarium could provide important information on a wide range of studies. People would be able to reference plants in order to update taxonomy and study botanics, invasive species, and plant and population trends. Furthermore, plants may be used to develop new cure for diseases and improve food production.