PRACTICAL TAXONOMY

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PRACTICAL TAXONOMY

• Why, how, and where to collect plants and prepare
  herbarium specimens

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RAB

• pp. vi-ix,
• xi,
• appendix just before index

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FIELD Equipment

• a manual RAB
• a hand lens or magnifying card or glass
• a centimeter scale drawn in RAB
• a knife
• pencil not pen and field notebook
• walking shoes sox
• back pack
• collecting bags /or vasculum, tags, labels
• field press
• optional water, 1st aid kit, compass, map,
  surveyors' ribbons, etc.

• http//www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/library/Fieldt
  echbook/packing.html)

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COLLECTION ETHICS

• NEVER collect or damage plants which are
  endangered, threatened, or locally rare unless
  you want to fail this course.
• Do not collect species not found in RAB. RAB is
  for native plants and contains only a few
  horticultural species (horticultural species are
  the cultivated plants people buy they're usually
  not native).
• Identify first then dig. Do not remove even a
  single tiny floret unless the plant is locally
  abundant.
• Do not collect or damage plants which are in
  national, state, county, city, or civic parks or
  wildlife refuges (including Freedom Park and
  RibbonWalk, where we may go for several labs)
  unless you are accompanied by a ranger or
  instructor who gives specific permission for a
  particular specimen. The "no parks" rule
  includes roads within parks or roads which are
  parks, like the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline
  Drive in Virginia.

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MORE RULES

• Do not trespass on private property without
  permission.
• Do not collect or damage plants on campus unless
  you are sure that they are unwanted weeds, not
  desirable flora (especially Ipheion).
• Do not collect or damage plants which have been
  planted or allowed to grow for scenic purposes,
  like in medians of highways or along courthouse
  sidewalks.

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WHERE TO COLLECT

• roadsides, except for park roads and areas
  described on previous slides.
• national forests, legally anywhere but ethically
  only where it won't be missed. Sometimes in
  popular forests you need a collecting permit from
  the Ranger Headquarters, but usually a permit is
  unnecessary unless signs are posted or unless
  you're denuding in public view.
• national parks only if you have a permit.
  National Park Service Research and Collecting
  Permits http//science.nature.nps.gov/research
  
• private property, if you have the owner's
  specific permission or if you are the owner, of
  course. Even if you have permission, avoid
  collecting horticultural varieties, hybrids, and
  exotic species which cannot be identified with
  RAB.
• unmanicured "waste" areas of the campus weedy
  spots around parking lots and dumpsters, between
  the dining hall and the ceramics kiln, behind
  shrubbery, along the fence by the soccer field.
• Be careful if you collect weeds in grassy
  areas. Some students in the past have mistaken
  desirable Liliaceae species (especially Ipheion)
  for weeds their grades, of course, did not end
  up in the A range.

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1 RULE

• NEVER collect or damage plants which are
• endangered,
• threatened, or
• locally rare unless you want to fail this course.
  

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How to collect

• A. identify first, before collecting. Avoid
  non-native plants.
• b. Include flowers, fruits, leaves, roots when
  possible.
• Tag with a collection number which matches a
  complete habitat description in your field
  notebook.
• Record immediately information you will need
  later for the herbarium label described below
  don't plan on remembering it during the ride
  home.
• c. If plants are particularly variable, collect
  several examples for your herbarium sheet and
  others in plastic bags.
• d. identify before you press. Don't even think
  about asking for instructor's help in identifying
  dried material. Store extra specimens in
  plastic bags in a refrigerator.
• e. Press ASAP (but after identifying)

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HERBARIUM SPECIMEN PREPARATION

• Why do we collect?
• know something about herbaria and the reasons
  they keep specimens--type specimens voucher
  specimens others.
• http//www.huh.harvard.edu/collections/whatis.html
  
• 100 uses for a herbarium http//www.inhs.uiuc.edu/
  kenr/ASPT/100uses.html
• a.

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HERBARIUM SPECIMEN PREPARATION

• Why do we collect?
• Specimens should be prepared in such ways as to
  be useful in a herbarium, to provide as much
  information about the species as is feasible.
• a.

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LABELS

• THE POINT type info which could be used by
  future scientists, like for
• finding plants for extracting cures
• estimating distribution is it becoming rare?
• assessing variation in different locations
• Explanation (click on label) http//www.nybg.org/b
  sci/herbarium_imaging/specimen_explained.html .

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http//linnaeus.nrm.se/botany/fbo/a/bilder/avena/a
venspi3.jpg
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http//linnaeus.nrm.se/botany/fbo/a/bilder/avena/a
venspi3.jpg
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http//www.ibiblio.org/unc-biology /herbarium/coll
ectors/radford.htm
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http//www.ibiblio.org/unc-biology /herbarium/coll
ectors/radford.htm
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download

• Label form download http//campus.queens.edu/facul
  ty/jannr/botany/LABLherb.doc

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RULES of identifying determining the identity
of a plant which have been previously classified
by a professional systematisttaxonomist.

• 1. .Always use the names used by RAB or
  http//plants.usda.gov/
• 2. Cultivated plants not completely identified in
  RAB count only half as much as native plants in
  your herbarium grade.
• 3. If you're doing something important like
  filing a specimen in a herbarium or writing about
  it, double-check your identification
• herbarium specimens
• illustrations and descriptions in other manuals
• the internet, like FNA
• 4. No credit (zero pointos) for specimens
  identified wrong.
• 5. Double credit if native specimen is not
  already in our herbarium.

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HERBARIUM SPECIMEN PREPARATION

• Why do we collect?
• Specimens should be prepared in such ways as to
  be useful in a herbarium, to provide as much
  information about the species as is feasible.
• a.

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HERBARIUM SHEETS

• Clean off mud and dirt blot dry
• Record field number on newsprint with specimen,
• Visualize how specimen will be mounted on
  herbarium sheets eventually, like this diagram on
  how to mount specimens http//155.187.10.12/proje
  cts/mounting/fig02.html

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MORE RULES

• sandwich each folded newsprint piece between
  blotters sandwich blotters between corrugated
  ventilators stack into a giant Dagwood sandwich
  and carefully close the press.
• For more detail, READ AND REVIEW INSTRUCTIONS!!

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• READ AND REVIEW INSTRUCTIONS