Creat Your Own Herbarium

To avoid breaking of any of the plant parts, you will want to mount your dried plant to paper. A heavier paper similar to construction paper works best. Gently put a little glue on the backside of the plant and then paste it to the paper (detailed instructions below). Be sure to store all of your plant samples in a safe place.

step six

Glue steps

To avoid breaking of any of the plant parts, you will want to mount your dried plant to paper. The procedure for mounting your plants are detailed below. It helps to layout the plate without glue before beginning these series of steps.

Prepare a tray with glue. A cafeteria tray works well for this procedure. The glue is standard white glue mixed 50/50 with water.
pouring glue

 
Spread the glue over the surface so that is evenly covering the entire tray.  An inexpensive brush is a good tool for this step.  
glue brush
Place a plant specimen in the glue. Use a light touch for this step to avoid getting to much glue on the plant.  
dip in glue
Gently blot away the extra glue on a piece of newspaper.  
blotting
Place the plant material on the paper and blot away any excess glue with a soft tissue.  
placing
Once all the pieces of the plant have been glued on the herbarium page, cover it with a sheet of wax paper.  
wax paper
Cover the wax paper with a heavy sheet of cotton rag paper.  
cotton rag
Place a cardboard cover on the entire stack.  The pages should now be sandwiched between a bottom and top sheet of cardboard.  
cardboard
Place completed sheets under any heavy materials, such as boxes or books.  Be sure to have the entire surface weighted.

More than one set of plates can be placed under the weighted material.

Finally, do not forget to label your new herbarium plate. Instructions for labeling your page and a printable label are in the next step.

  
heavy things
step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6 step 7

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