4/10 Herbarium

Today we learned to look at different herbarium specimen. These are samples gathered and preserved for future examination. It is important to have many different specimen of the same plant, as plants can vary due to the time of year, location, age, and other factors. It was my first time looking at such specimen, and I can now see how this type of in-depth observation is an important skill to practice. I looked at three different examples of Geranium robertianum:

1) Found in King County on the 26th of May, 2001. The leaves are green, and form in clusters from the stem. Three pink flowers with around 4 or 5 pedals are found from the dark green to dark brown stems.
2)Found in Skagit County on August 7th, 2009. The outer part of the leaves are red, with a slow gradient to a green center. This one's clusters of leaves aren't as full as the previous one, most likely due to being found during the fall rather than the Spring. No flowers are on this one either.
3)Found in Klickitat County on the 18th of June, 1962. Despite being the oldest specimen, it is in a similar state as the younger plants. The leaves are dark red and orange, which is unexpected, due to the similar time of year as the previous specimen. The clusters of leaves on this example are much more full than the other two, and the stem is of similar color to example one. There are no flowers but instead white pods where the flowers would be.

All of these have a similar leaf shape and steam structure.

Posted on May 1, 2012 07:02 AM by beardendb