10 May 2021

April showers means I don't have the energy to make a journal post :)

Botany in Virginia really pops off in April. I used to lug around the plant press throughout my trips to the park but I've realized I quickly that I waste a lot of time pressing each specimen as I collect it. I took some advice from Dr. Week's PHD student Betsy and just start bringing a whole bunch of plastic backs and a big trash bag! Basically, each collection is put into it's own plastic bag and I stash all of those in the big trash bag as I walk around. It's so much easier than carrying around the press. Before I was only able to collect like 16 plants every trip but after changing, the most I've been able to collect is 32!

I've started mounting some of my specimens, which I have to say is one of my favorite parts because it really feels like an art form. Like the plant is going to be mounted in the same position you put it in for the next 200+ years and so I want to make is ~pretty~. It's also nice to see a big stack of mounted plants, all that's left is digitizing and then they'll be good to be filed in with the other specimens in the herbarium.

So far I've collected 191 plants and I'm working on identifying them all and getting them up on the iNaturalist project page!

-Matthew

Posted on May 10, 2021 04:14 PM by matthewsheik