---
title: "Plant collecting"
chunk: 2/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_collecting"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:18:48.701818+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Preservation without pressing ===
Some specimens cannot be compressed, degrade when dried, or require other techniques for preservation and storage. Large seeds or fruits may be stored in boxes without compression. Aquatic plants and delicate plants may be stored in a liquid preservative. Cacti may be stored in ethanol.
In cases where drying or pressing a plant may destroy or alter a plant feature being studied, 50-75% ethanol can be used to preserve the specimen for up to 4 weeks. This is commonly used when sectioning tissue samples.
If a collector wishes to preserve a flower in its natural shape they will use a desiccant. The most commonly used desiccant is silica gel. To do this flowers are placed in a box, and the desiccant is added till the flowers are covered. After 2–7 days the desiccant is removed, revealing the preserved flowers.

== Collection of herbarium specimens ==
Herbarium specimens of plants are collected for a number of different uses. They can assist in  accurate identification and provide a species record for a time and place that can be used in distribution maps. They can also provide biological material for researchers, a reference point to document scientific names and vouchers for research and seed collections. DNA barcoding, a new method of identification of plant vouchers, is being used in herbaria across the world. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History creates their barcodes from a short sequence of plant DNA, which can be easily identified from all healthy specimens of the species. This barcode is then printed and placed onto the plant mount. By creating these DNA barcodes, the process of organizing and loaning plant specimens becomes more streamlined and can be mechanized.

=== Voucher specimens ===
Voucher specimens are select herbarium specimens. What distinguishes these specimens from others is that a voucher specimen is a "representative sample of an expertly identified organism." These specimens are usually associated with a professional research article and are considered to be more official references than a typical herbarium specimen. Voucher specimens can be useful in many ways such as use for comparison when scientists think they have found a new species or when dichotomous keys have narrowed the possible species down to a few that have minute differences.

== Plant collecting as a hobby ==
Plant collecting may also refer to a hobby, in which the hobbyist takes identifiable samples of plant species found in nature, dries them, and stores them in a paper sheet album, a simple herbarium, along with the information of the finding location, finding date, etc. necessary scientific information. As in many collecting hobbies, rarer specimens have been valued. However, when collecting living organisms, the conservation aspects must precede the collector's ambitions. This has led in some cases to a collector voluntarily taking part, helping scientists, in some research areas, provided they can store the "collectible". In fact, historically, many species have initially been found within a collection of a collector.
Usually, a plant can be identified in nature, since they are stationary.
The advent of digital cameras has led many plant collectors to switch totally to photography. Some have switched to collecting live specimens of various plant species in their gardens, building a sort of "private botanical garden". Some have specialized in a specific group, the orchids and the roses and their cultivars are among the most collected.
Recently plant identification apps have begun to be used by hobbyist plant collectors and casual plant enjoyers. The most common and accessible of these is Google Lens, others include Seek by INaturalist and Plant Snap. These plant identification apps allow users to make field identifications of plants down to the species level. However, for accurate identification of specimens the use of dichotomous keys is still required, as no plant identification app has reached an accuracy of 90%.This has made plant collecting and identification more accessible to casual hobbyist and students.

== Poaching ==

Illegal collection of plants is known as plant poaching. A report on the risk of rare plant poaching has provided data showing possible connections between geography and the rate of poaching in the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, United States. The openings for poaching were found to be increased in locations with easy accessibility, such as roads, trails, and developed areas. The condition of the environment can determine the levels of poaching, with regions of higher quality receiving more attention from poachers.

=== Ethics and prevention ===

The hobby and practice of plant collecting is known to have been the cause of declines in certain plant populations. This can be the result of hobbyists being oblivious to the status of a particular species, collectors of valuable species for profit, or researchers over collecting to fill slots in herbaria. This issue can be solved with proper research on the status of species before a plant is collected and taking the smallest sample possible. Threatened species may be listed in databases, such as the Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) database, though poachers have been known to use these resources to identify potentially valuable species. Additionally, botanical gardens themselves can raise awareness of plant poaching. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens introduced a sign to deter plant theft in their Desert Garden.

=== Historical examples ===
There are some historical examples of widespread plant collecting that have led to extinction or near extinction of species. Many of these instances have further led to an increase in modern theft of these species, given their rarity in the modern day.

==== Victorian Fern Craze ====

An early example includes the Victorian Fern Craze, also known as Pteridomania or fern fever, which, beginning in the 1830s, drastically reduced the numbers of various fern species in the UK. In particular, many in the Woodsia genus as well as the Killarney species.

==== Orchidelirium ====