Herbaria are scientific tools for establishing correct botanical identity and nomenclature of plants, and are repositories of plant specimens in a recognized system of classification. Herbarium collections have been used for understanding of plant diversity. Specimens housed in a herbarium provide documentation on the distribution of native and naturalized plant species, including data on rare, threatened and endangered species and weeds or other kinds of plants of actual or potential economic importance. Additionally, data about morphological and phenological variation in a species may be obtained from these specimens; these data are useful in preparing technical descriptions of plants. Such descriptions are useful in identifying plants, and the actual specimen may further confirm the identification of the plant species. Besides, herbarium specimens are also frequently used as an aid in teaching and research. Further, with the resurgence of importance to the indigenous system of medicine, there is a spurt in trade of medicinal plants and parts thereof for use in medicine. Intensive competition in this field has resulted in trade using spurious and adulterated samples that may not only produces inefficacious drug but may also harm human health. In this context, herbaria play an important role in confirming the genuineness of the plant raw material samples for drug manufacture. Further, it also help in evolving conservation strategies.
Global warming is affecting natural systems across the world. Of the biological responses to warming, changes in the timing of phenological events such as flowering are among the most sensitive. Recent comparative studies of flowering period of the herbarium specimens which were collected about 100 years back from the same plants that are still cultivating in botanical gardens showed that plants have been flowering earlier in recent years than they did in the past because of climate change. Thus, the herbarium collections can be used to quantify the effect of climate change on phenological events. Hence, herbarium specimens are reliable and time-saving data sources for comparative phenological studies and allow for studies at large phylogenetic and geographic scales that would otherwise be practically impossible.
Encouraged by the success of the earlier workshops on Herbarium Techniques organized by NISCAIR and requests. received from other organizations, NISCAIR has decided to organize such workshops regularly each year for Indian as well as the participants from SAARC countries. The aim of the workshop is to impart current scientific knowledge on methods of plant collection, identification, nomenclature, preservation, methods of documentation of information on plants and management of herbaria to the persons working as herbarium curators, bioscience teachers of schools, college/university lectures, scientists from research institutions, state forest institutes, research scholars, students and those who are interested in setting up regional herbaria having medicinal, botanically interesting, diverse or economically important plants of their locality.
Keeping in view the above, this manual has been prepared to fulfill the aspirations of the participants to know more about the various correct scientific techniques involved in preparing and preserving herbarium specimens and management of the herbaria.
Plants play a vital role in the sustenance of life on this planet. They have been used for a wide variety of human necessities and services. To understand the multifarious utilities of plants and for their proper identification, humans started collecting plants, dried them for preserving as specimens, and classified them for their future utility, little knowing about the enormous potential of these specimens for future research activities.
The science of creation of herbarium started way back in the 16th century when Luca Ghini developed the first Herbarium comprising 300 specimens. Ever since then, there has been remarkable progress both in the areas of collection of plant specimens and the techniques that have been adopted through research over the years for enhancing the storage life of herbarium specimens.
Herbarium specimens have proved their utility beyond the purposes for which they have been collected. They have enabled regeneration of threatened or extinct species using the seeds (in flowering plants) or spores (in case of ferns). They have acted as sources for the DNA molecule and have been used for phylogenetic studies as well as for understanding the changes brought about in phenology by environmental conditions. Though in recent times, virtual herbaria have been developed by many institutes, it has been realized that the utilities of real herbarium can never be matched. It is, therefore, obvious that for proper utilization of specimens for research and education, developing a good herbarium is a prerequisite.
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