Category: Pressed Plants

Sorry this is so late. I think this assignment was a learning lesson for me. I pressed a plant and wasn’t fully thinking about how it would turn out all flat. I wish I had taken one of the flowers off and put it face down so I could see how the actual flowers looked better than being squished sideways. Oh well, now I know for next time! Also, it’s kind of hard to tell, but the toothed leaf is showing the front side, while the fused oblong leaves are showing the back side.

Here are a couple more that survived the pressing, Rubus arcticus and Pyrola grandiflora.

I had fun making a plant press from cardboard, newspaper, and a few heavy books. I used to do this a lot as a kid, but I’ve never written out the herbarium specimen cards. I am actually not positive on the ID’s of both of these. I have really been enjoying learning the names of all of these flowers that I’ve been seeing since I moved to Alaska a decade ago.

We have had rain every day for weeks so my sample is staining the paper.   Good for berries but sad for flowers and veggies. Attached are three photos of iris growing along our lake front.   The ovary appears to have three open carpel compartments, with axial placentation. The eggs line up like seeds in a pepper. If you look   closely at the base of the petals, you can see two of the three stamens.   I saw no styles in two specimens I cut open.

Steffi, is there a trick to pressing fleshy plant parts and juicy stems?    

Here is a photo of the herbarium specimen that I made while I was in Hooper Bay, AK last summer. This was my first time creating an herbarium specimen so it was a great learning experience.  

Here are the herbarium specimen I made for this assignment. I just used heavy hardcover books for the pressings because I don’t have a plant press just yet. However, I’m in the process of making a travel one and will share when I’m done!

I made my plant press out of pieces of plywood from our garage and several textbooks. Berries are near and dear to my heart so I pressed two species of berries I have in my community. The thimbleberry is my absolute favorite berry of all time and I bushwhacked through copious amounts of salmon berries to find the patch the lake I hiked to was named for. The  black huckleberry is one that I need to learn how to love more as it is the most prevalent berry in my yard.
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