• Always collect material with reproductive structures, i.e. flowers, fruits, cones, spores . Sterile material has little, if any, scientific value. I cannot identify sterile material or put it into the LSU Herbarium except under rare circumstances.
• Press material as soon as possible, either in the field or soon thereafter. Flowers wilt very fast in the Louisiana heat. Avoid mixing up specimens, especially between localities. Invest in a field press.
• Take copious notes in the field for your labels (see below). Don't rely on your memory.
• Press specimens in newspaper. A herbarium sheet is 11.5" x 16.5". Shoot for collecting a specimen slightly smaller. Use a standard newspaper sheet folded in half (The Advocate) or a piece of campus newspaper (The Daily Reveille). Press large collections in more than one sheet if necessary. Mark with a waterproof pen. NEVER mix separate collections in the same sheet of newspaper. NEVER tape a specimen to the newspaper.
• Do not overlap plants/parts within the newspaper. Trim as necessary to reveal reproductive structures. Try to press so that both side of leaves and flowers are shown.
• Small herbs: Collect the whole plant, and enough plants to fill a sheet (use sound judgment, don't take a whole population!). Include the roots (remove dirt).
• Large herbs, grasses, sedges: Collect base of plant with roots (remove dirt), stem, representative leaves, and reproductive structures. If whole plant won't fit on a single sheet, break it up and present it on more than one sheet (see below).
• Frail and delicate petals: May need to be dried between wax paper or they will stick to newspaper.
• Shrubs, trees: Collect a representative stem/twig, with reproductive structures. For trees, a sample of wood and/or bark is sometimes useful but not required.
• Aquatics: Best if "floated" on a piece of mounting paper first and dried.
• Bryophytes, lichens, and fungi: Place in brown paper bags and dry. Pressing not necessary.
• Once the plants are in a press with blotters, etc., place them in a plant drier to prevent molding. Place oversized structures (wood, big fruits) in a paper bag for drying.

Labels for herbarium specimens: Information and presentation

General notes:

1. All herbarium labels must be printed/photocopied onto white ACID FREE archival paper such as "Perma life" or "Techna clear". This type of paper can be found at better stationary stores or at herbarium supply companies (like Herbarium Supply Co.).
2. If making any handwritten annotations on the label post-printing, the pen should have permanent, fade proof, archival black ink. Wholly handwritten labels are to be avoided.
3. Labels are about the size of a 3" x 5" index card. Anything larger is undesirable.

Labels:

One example label that is MINIMAL:

Notes about the label:

1. The herbarium to which the specimen will be accessioned goes on the top. If not LSU, then change it accordingly.
2. Always put the state where the specimen originates. If not Louisiana, then add the correct state.
3. Place the Latin family name first. CHECK SPELLING!! No italics, no underline.
4. Write out the entire Latin name or "binomial" (or trinomial) for the specimen, if known. Italicize or underline. CHECK SPELLING!!
5. The authority of that binomial should follow the Latin name. Most floras and technical books have the authority in them. Author names can also be found at the PLANTS database site of the USDA. Author names are not italicized or underlined.
6. Always include the parish or county where the plant was collected.
7. Give an exact locality, preferably with GPS coordinates. A person should be able to read the label data and use it to go back to the exact site where the plant was collected. Inclusion of driving directions is common. Note if the plant is in a managed area, such as Kisatchie National Forest (+district), Joyce Wildlife Management Area, Lee Memorial Forest of LSU, etc.
8. Describe the plant, especially details that are lost after the plant is pressed and dried. Details may include habit (tree, shrub, herb, etc.), root type, plant height, flower color and shape, fruit color.
9. Describe the habitat the plant is found in. Give a brief listing of lighting, soils, wetness, or list a specific habitat type like "pine savanna" or "cypress swamp". List any key plants that grow in the same habitat.
10. Note whether the plant is abundant or rare in that locality.
11. Place your name(s) as you want it at the bottom of the label and
12. Follow your name by a collection number. Each collection gets a unique collection number.
13. Put the date on the specimen. Do not use numbers for the month, as they easily get confused with the day.

Special Label Notations (not applicable to all labels):

1. Cultivated plants are special cases. A notation should be made in the description of the plants that it's "cultivated" and under what circumstances, i.e. in someone's yard, house plant, grown as a crop, etc. However, plants that are escapes or weeds are collected as above, and can be noted as such if desired.
2. Sometimes a "determiner" identifies a specimen for you. That person should be acknowledged somewhere on the label, along with the date, i.e. "Det. by D.M. Ferguson, Jan. 2001"
3. If the collection is to be cited in a study or publication, a note that the specimen is a "voucher" can be made in the separate paragraph at the bottom of the label, i.e. for the live oak example above: "Voucher specimen for the checklist of the plants on the LSU campus, Baton Rouge."
4. Common names can be included on the label, either below the Latin name or somewhere in the plant description. A common name is not a substitute for a Latin name.

With these 4 suggestions, the new label would look like this:

Oversized collections

These are common and come in two types:

• A single large collection that won't fit onto one herbarium sheet. Make 2 (or more if needed) identical labels. Somewhere on each label type in "Sheet 1 of 2", "Sheet 2 of 2" etc. to designate the collection should remain together even though it spills over onto another sheet. DO NOT assign each half, third, etc. it's own collection number, or refer to the collections as a, b, c, etc.!!!
• Bulky specimens and other associated materials. Large fruits (think coconuts), bark, pieces of wood, etc., after properly dried should be placed into a plastic zip-loc bag if possible and be given a duplicate label of the original, placed in the bag. The "Sheet 1 of 2" etc. is not necessary. Do not refer to the collections as a, b, c, etc.!! This also applies to spirit collections.

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