A Few Loose Seeds

Fuzzy, cotton-like masses threatened to float into the air as Jan turned to the next pressed plant sheet of the morning. The seed fluff, meant to be part of the specimen, had detached from the plant and dozens of seeds were now loose in the folder. They clung to the dried plant fibers, but otherwise, were ready to scatter at the slightest movement. Jan’s response to the problem reflected her years of experience working with the museum’s herbarium collection. She quietly stopped at the doorway of my office and asked for a small bag – calmly noting “a few loose seeds."

Loose seeds of tall thimbleweed (Anemone virginiana) make for
a mess in our herbarium, though they're a good adaptation for
natural seed dispersal towards the plant's reproductive efforts.

Loose seeds in an herbarium are not uncommon. As plant specimens are collected from the field, the delicate task of pressing them begins. Sometimes the natural dispersal mechanism of the plant, especially those adapted for wind dispersal, means that seeds can easily detach and create a mess of tiny particles. The tall thimbleweed seeds loose in the herbarium today reminded me much of the cattail fluff my brother and I regularly tossed at each other on fall adventures as preteens. The threat of fluff all over your sweater was enough to prompt hours of battles and games for us kids.

In this case, the thimbleweed seeds threatened to overwhelm Jan's neat workspace or worse, disrupt the careful organization of dozens of other plant samples in the folder.

Jan carefully tweezed each displaced seed from where it desperately clung on, adding one-by-one to a baggie for safe keeping and ultimately adding another step to the ongoing inventory process. For several months, she has been reviewing the museum’s herbarium collection, which includes over 1,300 pressed specimens. Our goal is to verify our documentation and identify any repair needs. The process is routine, but no two specimens are ever quite the same. Each plant comes with its own quirks and challenges.

Jan tweezed seeds clinging to each other, rough paper,
and precariously attached to crispy leaf edges!

The unique nature of each plant sheet is what breaks up the tediousness of our work. Jan provides individualized care to many of our plants – some of which she has collected over the past several years, otherwise which have been in our care for nearly 50 years. The age of the specimen and preservations practices are just another layer of factors that shape how Jan works with a specimen. At the most basic level, though, the more physical material we maintain the more information we hold. Each plant in the herbarium has its own story, and part of Jan’s role is to preserve that story, lest unaddressed it could be lost.

As the day progressed, Jan continued to review the folder and check off another shelf of plants from the inventory list. Now on shelf 20, we only have two more to go. Then we move into our boxed lichens. The work is far from glamorous or quick, but it is crucial. Through the dedicated support of volunteers like my friend Jan, the herbarium collection will continue to thrive, telling the story of plant life, one specimen at a time.