Herbarium
What is a Herbarium?
A herbarium is a collection of plant material preserved as a botanical record. Most of the collection consists of pressed and dried flowering plants, conifers and ferns which are mounted onto stiff card. However the collection also includes cones, nuts and seeds collected, plus unpressable items like spikes, large thorns and large seedpods. The specimens are catalogued and stored in special cabinets arranged in a specific order for easy reference. With the correct care these herbarium specimens should keep without deteriorating for hundreds of years.
The Collection
The Eastwoodhill Arboretum Herbarium was set up initially with funds from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust in 1994, and is housed in the Douglas Cook Centre for Education.
The herbarium has been established to hold specimens of the wide variety of plant species grown in the arboretum and this is the major focus of the collection. The herbarium is also being developed as a regional herbarium to contain plant material endemic to, or of significant botanical interest to the East Coast region. The herbarium curator is working with the Department of Conservation to collect this material.
There are 1800 mounted specimens in the herbarium.
Use of the Herbarium
Educational groups can arrange with the Curator of the Herbarium, Sally Willis, or Arboretum Curator Paul Wynen, to use the material in the herbarium, and instruction on aspects of herbarium curation, i.e. collecting. pressing, mounting, and preserving procedures can be organized.
Interested botanists, students and plant lovers can also arrange to see the herbarium when they visit the arboretum at a time suitable to the curator.