The Herbarium Preservation of Conifer Specimens

Author(s): C. N. Page
Source: Taxon, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Aug., 1979), pp. 375-379
Published by: International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT)
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TAXON 28(4):375-379.AUGUST 1979

THE HERBARIUM PRESERVATION OF CONIFER SPECIMENS

C. N. Page1

Summar,

The adequatepreservationof conifer specimens for the herbariumposes majorproblems

concerned with the disintegrationof materialon drying. A new effective general method of
treatment,whichfor the firsttime enables preservationto be achievedwithoutdisintegration,is
described, and a schedule of treatmentrecommended.

Introduction

The adequate preservation of conifer material for the herbarium poses particular
problems concerned with the disintegration of material on drying. Leaves of all Picea
and Tsuga normally fall from their shoots, male cones of most conifer genera disinte-
grate, and mature female cones in Abies, Araucaria, and Cedrus self-destruct. All
may be vital diagnostically, but can seldom be reconstructed with certainty from a
dismembered condition. Endeavouring to improve the preservation of such conifer
material, we have further developed an unpublished method originally pioneered by
M. Y. Orr in this herbarium, involving pre-treatment of specimens before drying.
It has become apparent during trial experiments that not only is the preservation
method itself important, but that other factors (involving health and vigour of the
original material and effects of delay between collection and preservation) also have a
crucial bearing on the state of preservation which can be achieved. These factors
have accordingly also been investigated, and an optimal condition for each has been
devised. Results seem highly successful.

General Experimental Method

A wide range of collection and preservation methods has been investigated. Of

preservation methods, a variety of combinations of physical and chemical treatments
which seemed likely to bring any benefit have been tried, as have different degrees of
each treatment. For each treatment the effects on fresh comparable specimens of I I
Picea and 4 Tsuga species' vegetative shoots, 8 Abies and 2 Cedrus species' near-
mature female cones, and male cones of a range of conifer genera have been com-
pared. Relative success of treatments was estimated after drying for the herbarium
and subjecting each to moderate trauma. (For female cones, this trauma involved
shaking loose specimens vigorously in a large cardboard box. For vegetative shoots
and male cones it involved brushing the dried treated shoots with a stiff brush, then
pulling quickly between finger and thumb until no further parts fell off, and finally
striking the specimen sharply against a stiff card and shaking it.) Only specimens
which continued to retain more than an estimated 95% of their parts undamaged after
such treatment were considered to have been successfully preserved. Loss of any
valuable taxonomic character was noted.

'
Royal BotanicGarden, Edinburgh,UK.

AUGUST 1979 375

Preservation Treatment Adopted

Of the many methods investigated, the most simple and successful was a sequen-
tial treatment involving a brief (10-minute) fixation by complete immersion in 70%
ethyl alcohol, followed immediately by 4 days complete immersion in 50% aqueous
glycerol. After this treatment, specimens could be briefly rinsed in water and pressed
in the usual way (or dried whole without pressing), with minimal deterioration in any
other feature beyond a slight colour change and partial loss of most blooms. The
treatment was found to retain leaves on all specimens of Picea and Tsuga, retain
female cones of Abies and Cedrius whole on their shoots without dismemberment,
preserve male cones of all genera which have been tried without further deteriora-
tion, and revert female cones of species which normally open on drying (eg. Picea,
Pinus, Tsuga) to the closed condition. Since these experiments,subsequentstorage
of successfully treated specimens under herbarium conditions for four years has
shown no furtherdeterioration,and it seems reasonableto assume that permanent
successful preservationhas in each case been achieved.
Disadvantagesof the method are complete or partialloss of blooms and waxes
from leaf surfaces, wherever these are alcohol-soluble,and some colour-changein
green tissue (which becomes more olive). No other disadvantageshave been ob-
served, and those occurring can be offset by enclosing with the final herbarium
specimen a packet containinga small dried untreatedspecimen.

Effects of Delay Between Collection and Treatment

Quite strikingdifferenceshave been foundbetween the resultsof similarpreserva-

tion treatment, when time of delay between collection and treatment has varied
without special precautionsbeing taken to minimizedesiccation. Maximumbenefit
of the pre-treatmentmethod can be achieved only when material is treated hn-
mediately upon collection from the tree or when no dehydration i'whatsoevertakes
place priorto processing.The latteris particularlyrelevantto materialreturnedfrom
the field to a laboratoryfor treatment,for in manyPicea and Tsugavegetative shoots
the preservationtreatmentwas found to be unsuccessfulif shoots had been exposed
for a half-houror less to a normallaboratoryatmosphereof 60-65% R.H. at 22-
230 C. The effects of such exposure, althoughcausing no visible effect on the speci-
men at the time, were foundto be virtuallyirreversiblein causingfailureof successful
subsequent preservation.
To adapt the method to the field, or for delays anticipated in transit or treatment in
everyday collection, we have found the following methods to be successful in pre-
venting material from deteriorating for varying periods between collection and treat-
ment:

(a) dampenedshoots sealed immediatelyupon collection in closed plastic bags with wads of
dampenednewspaperand storedin shadedconditionsat field temperature,kept successfullyfor
8-16 days withoutappreciableloss in potentialfor preservation.
(b) dampenedshoots sealed immediatelyuponcollection in closed plastic bags with wads of
newspaperdampenedwith a 5%aqueous phenol solution and stored in shadedconditions at
field temperature,kept successfullyfor up to 8 weeks withoutsignificantdeteriorationin poten-
tial for preservation,althoughshowed considerablecolourdarkening.
(c) dampenedshoots sealed immediatelyuponcollection in closed plastic bags with wads of
dampenednewspaperand storedin conditionsof mildrefrigeration(80 C), kept successfullyfor
up to 8 weekswithoutsignificant in eitherpreservation
deterioration potentialor colourloss.
Thisseemsto be the bestlong-termstoragemethodwhenrefrigeration is available.
Combinationsof these treatments,particularly(a) followed by (c), are also effec-
tive and could sometimes be the most practical, if long-term storage is anticipated

376 TAXON VOLUME 28

before treatment can be undertaken.

Effect of Vigour and Environment of Original Material

In a comparison of vegetative shoots of a similar range of species grown in cultiva-

tion under mild, more oceanic conditions at Benmore, Argyll and under drier, more
continental conditions at Edinburgh, we found that equally successful preservation
could be achieved in both the vigorous Argyll specimens and those from Edinburgh if
treatment was carried out immediately upon collection, or if any of the storage
methods were used. However, if delays between collection and preservation (or
storage) occurred, or between storage and treatment, then material from the milder
more moist environment deteriorated even more rapidly when exposed to room
conditions than did Edinburgh-reared specimens. Thus specimens from the most
luxuriant growing conditions seem to be exceptionally desiccation-sensitive, and lose
their potential for preservation very rapidly once collected unless treatment or stor-
age of the type recommended is initiated immediately.

Recommended Schedule of Treatment

All taxa and morphological parts amenable to pressing and drying without chemi-
cal treatment, should be pressed or dried in the normal way. For specimens of all
taxa and morphological parts likely to benefit from chemical pre-treatment, use the
following procedure; see Figs. 1 and 2 for examples of treated specimens.

i. Treat all specimensas soon aftercollection as possible, avoidingexposure to desiccating

conditions priorto treatment(especially for specimens collected from growingconditions of
high precipitationand atmospherichumidity).
ii. Appropriatemorphologicalnotes on the tree and the specimentaken mustbe madeat this
stage before treatment,and small representativeportionsremovedand dried separatelyin an
untreatedcondition. These are later added back to the final specimen in a capsule or small
pouch, with appropriateannotation.
iii. Where it is requiredto store specimens temporarilyprior to treatment,for periods of
storageup to about 10 days, rinse specimensbrieflyin fresh water and store in sealed plastic
bags with dampabsorbentpaperaway from heat and direct sunlight.
iv. Whereit is requiredto store specimensfor periodslongerthan 10 days before treatment,
rinse in water and store in closed plastic bags in a refrigerator,or in the field, rinse in a 5%
aqueous phenol solution and store at normal temperaturesin closed plastic bags with 5%
aqueous phenol-impregnated absorbentpaper.
v. Treat fresh or stored specimensin 95%ethanol (ethyl alcohol) by complete immersion.
Remove after 10 minutes, gently shake off excess fixative, and immediatelycompletely im-
merse the specimenin a 50%aqueousglycerine solution.
vi. After4 days in glycerine,remove, rinse brieflyin water(to remove excess glycerine)and
press in the usual way, or if bulky, dry whole specimensunpressed.
vii. Mountor store the treated specimenalong with the sample of untreatedmaterial,with
brief annotationof the treatmenteach has received.

A cknowledgements

I wish to acknowledgetechnicalhelp receivedfrom Messrs. M. Bannermanand D. McKean

in undertakingmany differenttrial treatmentsand their variations.

AUGUST 1979 377

 8 b

0 f
10 cm

Fig. 1. Photo-silhouettes of conifer shoots ready for mounting for the herbarium preserved by
the treatment method described here: a. Picea asperata Masters, b. Tsuga heterophylla (Raff.)
Sargent, c. Tsuga mertensiana (Bong.) Carr, d. Picea smithiana (Wallich) Boissier, e. Picea
brewerana S. Watson, f. Picea omorika (Pancie) Purkyne.

378 TAXON VOLUME 28

 b E
a U

f
e

Fig. 2. Photo-silhouettesof conifercones readyfor incorporationin the herbariumcarpologi-

cal collectionpreservedby the treatmentmethoddescribedhere:a. Abies nordmanniana(Ste-
ven) Spach, b. Abies forrestii C. C. Rogers, c. Abies procera Rehder, d. Araucaria araucana
(Molina) K. Koch, e. Abies koreana Wilson, f. Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) Carr.

AUGUST 1979 379