Before the Indian summer and frosts set in yet, you can make your own herbarium as a souvenir of summer! More precisely, pick flowers from flower beds and lawns, dry them, and when the mood strikes, make beautiful picture. If you didn’t have time, no problem, there’s plenty of snow on the trees beautiful leaves all colors and sizes! Now you will learn 3 ways to make beautiful paintings from flowers, both dry and freshly picked! And how to make a herbarium for school or kindergarten.

How to make a herbarium with your own hands

Traditional option.

1. Dry everything that we picked.
Important: you need to pick dry flowers, not after rain, wet ones can rot.

Dry it my way personal experience best in cardboard! I had thick cardboard packages. I didn’t like it in the newspaper, the thin flowers were simply imprinted into the newspaper and it was impossible to tear them off) It was better in a thick paper napkin. But I still liked it better in cardboard - even thick plants dried perfectly in it.

Place each flower so that it does not interfere with its neighbor, lay it with cardboard from below and above and press it with a heavy press. Encyclopedias and shelves with a bag of plaster on top worked for me. It dries for at least a week.

2. Making a background - the children themselves will be happy to paint a thick sheet of paper with watercolors or gouache.

Also, even the little ones can paint the frame with a brush or sponge. It is better to paint it with acrylic. If you paint it with gouache like I do - better later varnish.

3. On a separate sheet of paper, I advise you to lay out in advance what your future painting will look like.

4. To glue, a regular glue stick is enough. You need to smear the background, not necessarily everywhere - so that only the flowers and leaves do not crawl.

6. After gluing, cover and press with glass or plastic, which was in a frame (like mine in a small IKEA one) and you can rejoice - admire! Naturally, glass or plastic must be wiped in advance.

DIY herbarium with children is ready!

You can stamp the not yet dried leaves onto watercolor paper using a hammer!

How to make a beautiful picture of flowers
Choose flowers of bright colors!

Place it face down on watercolor paper, cover it with a napkin or paper towel and hit the flower with a hammer until the outline appears.

We remove the broken flower and a watercolor print remains.

And one more idea of ​​what to make from a herbarium
You can make a herbarium in a “vase” of fresh flowers and then dry it under pressure.

Happy creativity!

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Still interesting:

Autumn is a magnificent golden time, which makes it possible to collect a variety of material for the herbarium. Autumn colors They will play differently on the album sheets. In summer and spring you can also collect interesting plants. In the herbarium, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance for an inexperienced beginner. Flowers need to be dried correctly, otherwise you will end up with something flat and not very beautiful, and somehow preserved tree leaves will lose their color scheme.

How to make a herbarium - collecting material

• Take a small garden shovel or scissors with you outside for careful removal and separation from the total mass.
• It is important to collect plants in dry weather. High humidity will negatively affect the stability of color and shape. Wet samples will soften and turn black.
• The classic herbarium collection scenario requires preserving the plant from roots to petals. For example, a plant in full height does not enter the leaf, the stem is broken and completely placed in the selected area.
• Collecting copies for an album, painting, filling epoxy resin usually on the street. But if allowed, they also take advantage of the opportunity in botanical gardens, where excellent examples of natural beauty are grown.
• Place the plant models in a large folder with hard walls, first lined with newspapers that do not contain smudgeable paint on their pages. Leaves and flowers are laid out in the position they will look like after drying.

How to make a herbarium - drying process

• At home, you will need a press that presses down the herbarium. For example, thick books, boards, chipboard sheets, fiberboard, any other heavy objects.
• Up to 50 pieces are placed under the press without a main folder for carrying. A label stating the name must be affixed next to the specimen being collected. They only print out the words themselves or write them by hand in legible handwriting.
• Ideally, you should replace the newspaper pads with dry ones every 2 days. As expected, dried natural material is fragile and brittle, flowers, stems, leaves hold their shape and are warm to the touch.
• Mount the classic herbarium on a thick white sheet of the required format. The sheet accommodates any convenient number of plants. The failed herbarium is not put into a folder; it is replaced by a reassembled one, so as not to spoil the overall picture.
• The plants are attached with threads to match the sample. Sew over the entire area, maintaining the interval between stitches. WITH reverse side There should be no huge stitches, the threads are tied securely. Also, the method of fastening is thin strips of tracing paper, PVA glue. Scotch tape or adhesive tape are not suitable, they greatly spoil the appearance.
• Typically the plant takes 2 to 4 weeks to dry. The process depends on the water content and humidity in the room.
• Compositions and folders with herbarium are stored in a ventilated room behind glass, away from dust.
• Diseased plants are not collected for the herbarium unless this is the main idea.
• It is convenient to dry the leaves through gauze or cloth, running a hot iron over the top. Schoolchildren often do this when there is little time to prepare.
• The longer the time period from plucking from the stem to pressing, the duller the color will be.

How to make a herbarium - drying flowers

• The continuation of the life of flowers after their death is a separate issue. The buds are beautiful because they are voluminous. You will need for work: fine kitchen salt, books, white paper, jars, scissors, glue. Picked flowers are processed immediately, thereby preserving color, vitality, and shape. Miniature heads are placed under a press, and lush ones are placed in a container with salt or semolina. To the bottom glass jar poured table salt or cereal, place a flower, making sure that the grains fall between the petals. Leave them for 1 month. When removing, shake, blow and use as intended.
• Method with river sand. The sand is sifted and washed to remove impurities. Then they heat it in the oven on a baking sheet and add the buds.
• Huge peonies are cut into 2-4 parts, and after the drying process is completed, they are glued together.

Let the reader know that even aristocrats were engaged in herbarium. It is a fairly common hobby among nature lovers. By using your imagination you can create amazing, long-lasting paintings. And impeccable drying gives volume, a piece of life. Framed plants are suitable as a gift for Mother's Day, March 8, or to decorate your home interior.

Making a herbarium

Neither verbal descriptions, nor drawings, nor botanical guides can give such a complete picture of flora as a direct study of it. But if you pick a plant and bring it into the room, it will quickly wither. But the plant can be preserved for a long time. To do this, you need to dry it by placing it between sheets of paper. Botany lovers have a whole collection of such dried plants. In order for the collection to last longer and for it to be convenient to use, it must be well and correctly designed and provided with labels. This collection is called herbarium.

For over 200 years, scientists, travelers and botanists who studied the plant cover of our country collected herbariums. These herbariums are carefully stored in various botanical scientific institutions, the largest of which in our country is the Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. The most complete herbarium of flora is concentrated there Soviet Union(over 5 million herbarium sheets). The herbarium of Moscow University contains 700 thousand herbarium sheets. Many cities and local history museums have herbariums of local flora collected by amateur botanists and local historians. In higher and secondary educational institutions, the herbarium is used as visual aid in botany lessons. These herbariums are usually compiled by students.

Many people think that collecting plants and compiling a herbarium is a very simple matter. It's really not difficult. However, for a collection to have scientific or educational value, a number of rules must be followed. First of all, you need to correctly collect the plants, write down their living conditions and location; then identify the plants, i.e. find their scientific names; Finally, the plants must be skillfully dried and prepared into herbarium specimens. For all this, you need a manual for identifying plants and simple equipment that anyone can do themselves.

To collect and dry plants, you should stock up on blotting (filter) or newspaper (the format of central newspapers) paper, which absorbs and releases moisture well. From half-sheets of newspaper folded in half, prepare drying shirts. Plants are placed in them. Whole newspapers, folded in four, serve as interchangeable pads between the “shirts” with plants. To collect fruits and seeds prepare bags, or capsules, from writing paper. For labels, cut a pack of labels into 1/8 of a sheet from the same paper or use a small notepad. It is also necessary to prepare a sufficient amount of dense, preferably special herbarium paper, carefully cut it into sheets of a generally accepted format: width - from 28 to 30 cm, length - 42-45 cm. The herbarium will be mounted on these sheets. You also need good clean glue (gum arabic, photo glue).

A morphological herbarium showing how different the shape of inflorescences can be.

Plants intended for herbarization are collected entirely, that is, with all above-ground and underground organs - roots, rhizomes, tubers, bulbs, which are removed from the soil with an iron scoop or botanical digger. It can be replaced by a strong kitchen knife or a wide chisel. For longitudinal cutting of thick rhizomes (so that they dry out faster), as well as for cutting (do not break off) branches from trees and shrubs, use a garden or pocket knife. Aquatic plants are caught from the water with a small hook or a “cat” (an anchor or a large fishing rod with a sinker on a long cord). They can also tilt or pull up a branch. tall tree. For drying “shirts” and plants collected in the field, it is necessary excursion folder. It consists of two plates of cardboard or plywood with slots near the corners - a wide braid is threaded through them to tie a folder and carry it over the shoulder.

Plants are dried in botanical press. It represents two wooden frames same size(30X45 cm or 35X50 cm, i.e. slightly larger than a herbarium sheet), on which they are stretched metal mesh. To tighten the press, use a strong cord or two belts. The press can also be made from two sheets of plywood, drilling many holes in them for ventilation. If you cut slits in the corners of plywood sheets and thread tape through them, you will get a combined folder-press suitable for both collecting and drying plants.

Plants for the herbarium are collected only when dry, clear weather. Plants wetted by rain or dew take a long time to dry and may deteriorate. This condition also applies to plants that are dried in sand (see below).

From left to right: botanical digger and scoop, excursion folder made of cardboard or plywood for collecting plants, press for drying plants (dimensions are given in centimeters).

Not every plant is suitable for a herbarium. Specimens should be selected that are fully developed, without any damage, with blossoming flowers and, if possible, with fruits, even if unripe (without fruits, some plants are very difficult to identify). Branches with leaves are cut off from trees and shrubs so that you can see not only the shape, but also the location of the leaves. For the herbarium you need their flowers and fruits, and for conifers - cones. Dioecious plants should be represented in the herbarium by male and female specimens, and monoecious plants by specimens with pistillate and staminate flowers. From large herbaceous plants that do not fit entirely on a herbarium sheet, parts are taken from which one can easily get an idea of ​​the whole plant.

Once the plant is removed from the soil, it is thoroughly cleaned of soil adhering to the roots and immediately placed in a drying “jacket.” All plant organs are first straightened. If some leaves lie on top of each other, layers of drying paper are placed between them so that the leaves do not turn black during the drying process. One or two leaves should be bent so that the lower surface of the leaf blade is visible. Under large and delicate flowers useful to put thin layer absorbent cotton wool. Tall plants with narrow leaves, such as cereals, are bent and placed in a “shirt” in a zigzag. Whenever bending, the plant must be placed so that the root faces down and the end of the stem faces up.

For herbarization, it is recommended to take at least three copies of each botanical species. Of these, one is intended for dissection (dividing into parts) during identification, the second is for mounting on a herbarium sheet, and the third is a spare one.

For each plant, right there in the field, a rough label, which is put into the “shirt” with it and is not subsequently separated from it. The labels are numbered sequentially, with the label number replacing the plant name until it is identified. Left in the label free place for Russian and Latin botanical names of species and family. If the herbarium is intended for a local history museum, then the local history is also recorded. popular name plants. Next, the features of the habitat of the taken plant are noted, i.e. the environment in which this species grows: terrain, soil properties, degree of moisture, lighting conditions, nature of distribution, etc. The geographical point where the plant was taken is also indicated. Finally, the date the plant was picked is recorded. The label is signed by the one who found the plant for the herbarium, and then by the one who identified it. If the plant is accompanied by a bag of fruits or seeds collected at another time, then this date is also marked on it.

To establish the exact scientific name of a plant species and its belonging to a particular family, plant identification keys are used. At the end of the collection, all “shirts” with plants must be transferred (without turning them over!) from the folder to the press frame. In this case, 2-3 pads made of the same newsprint are placed between the “shirts” to absorb moisture. The “shirts” are laid out on the frame so that the thick parts of the plants are positioned alternately in one direction or the other, then the stack of “shirts” will be smooth, without humps. Having covered the pack with a second frame, tighten the press tightly with crosswise straps or a cord in 2 loops. In this form, the press is hung or leaned against a wall somewhere in the sun and wind. At least once a day, wet pads are replaced with dry ones. The “shirts” do not change, and the plants are not removed from them. In damp weather, the press is usually placed near a warm stove or radiator. central heating, placing it on its edge. To speed up drying, they also use a hot iron, carefully ironing the plant through paper or gauze. With these methods, plants dry out faster and retain their natural color better.

Drying on cotton mats is used for those plants that turn black during slower drying, for example, plants from the orchid family, some willows, etc. The blue and blue color of the corollas, for example, in bluebells and blue cornflower, is better preserved if When planting these plants in a press, place thin cotton pads under the inflorescences.

The plant can be considered dry and suitable for mounting if, when lifted by the root collar, it does not bend and retains the shape acquired in the press. Only one species is mounted on one herbarium sheet - in one or several copies. The plant is placed on a herbarium sheet so that its parts do not protrude beyond the edges, and is attached in different places with narrow (3-4 mm wide) strips of paper. Glue is applied to the ends of the strip and the corners of the label. Thick parts of plants, such as rhizomes, can be attached to the leaf with threads. To prevent the threads from being visible, they are painted with watercolors or ink. green color. Plants cannot be glued to paper. A bag or capsule with fruits or seeds is glued to the lower left corner of the herbarium sheet. The lower right corner of the sheet is reserved for the label, rewritten completely in ink, or best of all, in ink. The seed packet and label are glued slightly away from the edges of the sheet. A clean herbarium label looks like this:

Herbarium sheet with dried plant, label and seed packet.

When dried in a press, the plant loses its three-dimensional shape, and the natural arrangement of its parts in space is disrupted. Therefore, if it is necessary to preserve the volume of a plant or flower during drying, they resort to another method - drying it in sand. For this you need a small, even river sand. It must be completely clean, free from clay and organic residues. This is achieved by washing the sand in water until the turbidity completely disappears. The sand is then dried and calcined on a hot plate in iron pans until the emission of smoke and odor ceases. Sand prepared in this way is stored in a closed container.

Major families of flowering plants. Ranunculaceae: 1 - oak anemone, a - flower, b - fruits; 2 - European swimsuit; 3 - larkspur, and - cross-section of a flower. Moths: 4 - red clover, a - flower, b - part of the root; 5 - meadow rank. Umbelliferae: 6 - carrot, a - flower, b - fruit. Cruciferous: 7 - cabbage, a - fruit-pod; 8 - field lily, and - fruit. Rosaceae: 9 - brown rosehip, a - false fruit; 10 - common pear, and - cross-section of a flower.

Most often dried in sand large flowers, inflorescences, branches with fruits, shoots and small plants, such as sundew. The easiest way is to dry the plant in a cone-shaped “fountain” made of thick paper. The sharp top of such a cone is bent and secured with a paperclip to prevent sand from spilling out. The flower is placed in a “pound” and carefully covered with sand from a spoon or scoop. Cones with plants embedded in sand are placed in a special rack or hung on nails. The drying place should be warm and well ventilated. The duration of drying plants in sand varies. It depends on the plant (thin or fleshy leaves and stems) and on the air condition (temperature, humidity, wind). Ability to determine the time required for drying different plants, acquired by practice.

Compositae: 11 - perennial aster; 12 - blue cornflower, a - basket, b - funnel-shaped flower; 13 - common tansy; 14 - common chicory, a - root. Liliaceae: 15 - May lily of the valley, a - fruits, b - part of the rhizome; 16 - yellow goose onion. Lamiaceae: 17 - meadow sage; 18 - peppermint. Solanaceae: 19 - potato, a - flower, b - cross-section of the fruit. Cereals: 20 - timothy (sultan); 21 - rye (ear); 22 - corn, o - cob; 23 - annual bluegrass, and - flower.

Plants dried in sand, especially flowers, become very fragile and must be removed from the sand very carefully. You cannot pour sand from the cone over the edge - the plant or flower can be broken. It is better to release sand in a thin stream from a hole made with an awl or nail at the bottom of the cone. Dried plants should be stored in closed boxes or under a glass cover in the dark. They fade quickly in the light.

When the plant dries out, it loses its natural color. First of all, the red and blue color of the flowers fades; the yellow color lasts longer. During long-term storage, the color of the leaves and stems changes. From green it becomes brownish-brown. What to do in this case? Watercolors come to the rescue. You need to choose the appropriate tone and paint the petals and green parts of the dry plant with a thin brush, restoring the natural color. If the paint does not stick to the waxy coating that sometimes covers the surface of plants, then a thin layer of heated gelatin is first applied to it with a brush.

Why is a herbarium needed?

The word "herbarium" originally referred to a book about medicinal plants. Tournefort (c. 1700) used the term to refer to a collection of dried plants; it was adopted by Linnaeus and, under his influence, replaced the earlier term "hortus siccus" with "herbarium". Nowadays, a herbarium refers to both a collection of dried (or otherwise fixed) plants and the institution in which it is stored.

When creating a herbarium, it solves the following problems:

· stores reference material;

· provides samples for determination comparative method;

· Serves as a standard for correct scientific names.

Depending on the tasks and capabilities, as well as the nature of the work being carried out, herbaria can be distinguished as general, regional, local, and special. General herbaria can be very large. The largest herbarium in our country and one of the largest in the world is stored at the Botanical Institute. V.L. Komarov in St. Petersburg. It contains more than 5 million leaves of plants found throughout Russia and neighboring countries. The herbarium of K. Linnaeus and the Kew Botanical Gardens in London has 6.5 million specimens.

But there are also small herbariums that study the flora of a certain region or region. Every higher educational institution, where biologists, ecologists, etc. are trained. usually has its own herbarium collections that meet certain requirements. Educational herbaria are classified as special herbaria. They can be located not only in universities, but also in schools and colleges. Such collections should contain specimens to illustrate the morphological structures of plants, representatives of economically important and cultivated plants, grown in a given locality, specimens to illustrate the characters of the main families and genera.

Observing plants in nature, collecting them and compiling a herbarium is a fruitful and exciting way to get to know the world of plants. No, even a beautifully executed drawing, much less an oral description, can replace natural plant, dried on a herbarium sheet. Not every plucked and dried plant can be called a herbarium specimen - a herbarium, i.e. a collection of "specially collected and dried plants that have been subjected to scientific processing(definition, classification, etc.)".

Without herbarium collections, plant taxonomy is impossible.

The work of creating a herbarium is very labor-intensive, but excitingly interesting. WE WISH YOU SUCCESS!

How to properly collect plants for a herbarium?

To collect plants and compile a herbarium, the following equipment is required:

1. Herbarium folder for transporting collected plants and a supply of paper, consisting of two sheets of thick cardboard or plywood measuring 45x35 cm with two ribbons threaded into the slits for tightening. Lately It became a practice to collect plants for the herbarium in large bags. This allows them to be brought to the base fresher, which makes subsequent loading into the press easier.

2. A supply of paper for drying plants, if possible not glued, porous (filter paper, newspaper).

3. Tools for digging and cutting plants.

4. Labels.

5. Herbarium press, consisting of two metal or wooden frames covered with mesh.

When collecting plants for a herbarium, a number of rules must be followed:

1. Plants for the herbarium are collected in dry weather, because After rain or dew, plants dry poorly and may turn black.

2. For the herbarium, take healthy, undamaged plants, with all above-ground and underground organs. This is due to the peculiarities of identifying plants by morphological characteristics.

3. Herbaceous plants, exceeding the size of the folder, bend 2-3 times. From very large plants, take the upper part with flowers and leaves, the middle part with leaves and the lower part with basal leaves. Shoots with leaves, flowers and fruits (if any) are cut from trees and shrubs.

4. Plants of the same type are placed in the shirt. Large plants take 1-2 copies, small ones - up to 10 or more (to fill the sheet).

5. Plants are dug up and freed from soil. Thick stems, rhizomes and roots are cut in half lengthwise.

6. To place the plant, the folder must be placed on a flat surface.

7. When placing it in a folder, the plant must be straightened and given the shape in which it will later be mounted. Do not tear off anything, especially the lower leaves. If the plant has a lot of leaves that overlap each other, you need to remove some of the leaves, while preserving the petioles, so that you can have an idea of ​​the true leaf arrangement. When preparing the plant for installation, some of the leaves are unrolled bottom side so that the nature of pubescence or other features can be examined. The same is done with part of the flowers (inflorescences).

8. A draft label is inserted into the shirt with the plant, which indicates:

1. name of the plant (if the plant is unknown, then it can be assigned a number or given a conventional name);

2. the place where the plant was collected (region, district, nearest settlement);

3. plant habitat (meadow, forest, steppe, etc.);

4. date of collection;

5. by whom the plant was collected and identified;

6. in which communities and how often this type meets.

It is necessary to know which species are protected and not to dig them up unless absolutely necessary. One gets acquainted with such plants at the place where they grow.

In addition, the annual mass collection of plants in one area entails a reduction in their numbers and can cause significant harm to the state of the local flora. To avoid this, you can collect part perennial plants without underground parts, cutting off only above-ground shoots.

How to dry plants?

The collected plants must be placed in a herbarium press for drying. To do this, they are taken out of the folder along with the sheet on which they are placed (the shirt) and transferred to the press, interspersed with additional sheets of paper - spacers. In this case, the plants are well straightened so that the individual parts do not overlap each other. If this is not possible, paper is placed between the overlapping organs.

Plants should not protrude beyond the paper. A label must be included with the plant.

To speed up the drying of very succulent plants (for example, orchids), they are scalded with boiling water without immersing the flowers in water. U bulbous plants cut the onion lengthwise, which is also scalded.

A stack consisting of herbarium shirts (sheets with plants) and pads is placed between the halves of the press and tightened tightly. Up to 50 sheets of plants can be placed in one press.

The press is dried in the sun, making sure to bring it indoors at night. Wet pads are replaced with dry ones daily (for aquatic plants- 2 times a day).

A properly dried plant becomes fragile, its leaves and flowers do not sag. When applied to the lips, it does not cause a feeling of cold.

How to properly install a herbarium?

A plant mounted on a herbarium sheet should make it possible to study it to get a true idea of ​​its morphology. In this regard, when designing a herbarium, it is necessary to adhere to a number of rules and requirements:

1. Plants dried in botanical presses are mounted on a herbarium sheet made of thin white cardboard or thick white paper measuring 42x28 cm (A3 format). One or more are placed on one herbarium sheet (in the case of small sizes) specimens of plants of the same species.

2. On the right bottom corner a label is attached to the herbarium sheet. Its size is usually 10x8 cm. Entries on the label are made in black ink, legible handwriting. Information is transferred to it from the draft label. A herbarium without a label has no value!

3. For installation, the most successful specimens are selected, with flowers and fruits that do not have damaged organs (if this is not a herbarium of damage).

4. The plant is placed on a leaf so that the underground organs are directed downward. If the specimen is large, it can be broken in several places and secured in this form.

5. Plants are sewn on with white or green threads. First, the underground organs are secured, then the stem, leaf petioles, inflorescence axis, and pedicels.

6. C bottom side the herbarium sheet should not have wide stitches, the knots are tied tightly with front side on the plant.

7. After this, the herbarium sheet is picked up and slightly bent or turned over with the plant down. The parts of the plant lagging behind the sheet of paper are glued using paper “straws” (stripes of tracing paper 1.5 - 2 mm wide).

8. If necessary, the inflorescence or flower is “dressed” in an envelope made of tracing paper. The fruits can be placed in a special envelope, which is glued to the same sheet.

ATTENTION:

·When mounting the herbarium, use PVA glue or starch paste.

·Ink for filling labels must be waterproof.

How to store a herbarium?

Dried plants are very hygroscopic and quickly deteriorate due to dampness. Herbarium specimens should be stored in a dry, bright and ventilated room, placing folders with them in tightly closed cabinets. The selection of herbarium sheets in folders can be thematic (herbarium of cultivated plants, herbarium of weeds, etc.) or systematic. A systematic herbarium of families is placed in alphabetical order or according to any accepted taxonomic system.

As the collection increases, it is necessary to maintain a catalog where all information about the plants being collected is noted. The catalog can be on paper or in electronic form.

Herbariums often suffer from insects. There are many ways to combat them: treating collections with various insecticides, deep freezing, heating, etc. All of them require some preparation and certain conditions.

Content

Autumn is a very beautiful time of year, golden foliage, deep blue sky, dried flowers and leaves. I want to save some landscapes and place them in my home so that they give warmth and please the eye on long winter evenings. It is autumn - best time in order to collect and make a herbarium of flowers, spikelets and leaves.

To make a herbarium with your own hands that will last a long time, you need to know several nuances and rules for its collection and design. Firstly, it is better to collect materials and plants for a future herbarium in dry weather, because wet flowers and leaves are more difficult to store. Secondly, in addition to standard plants that are usually used for flower arrangements, you can also select whole buds and individual petals, spikelets, seeds, etc. Thirdly, it is better to collect already fallen leaves and dried flowers, rather than plucking all the plants in a row, destroying nature. And it’s easier to dry dry materials at home.

How to make a beautiful herbarium

If you can find several similar friends on each other leaves or flowers, this can result in a very original symmetrical composition. You can collect everything you catch your eye in the forest, with a little imagination, and every piece and element will take its rightful place in the future herbarium. The best helpers in collecting materials for a herbarium are children - they don’t think about where and what can be used, but take everything in sight. Then you have to invent and find ways to attach all the collected plants, but the result is amazing.

Leaves and flowers are stored best and longest in dried form. To dry plants correctly, you can use one of the proven methods:

In addition to the means of drying materials for the herbarium, you need to remember a few more little tricks that will help in creating an original composition. For example, if the plant is dried correctly, it will be level and the top will not tilt down. The leaves can be slightly strengthened to make them denser using a solution of water and PVA glue, which are mixed in a ratio of 1:5.

You can add any dried flowers to the herbarium, but delphinium and dahlias retain color best and look best in the composition. Flower petals, dried separately from the bud, will last a long time and will decorate the picture.

Herbarium in the interior

A herbarium is a flat bouquet that can be stored in several ways: how decorative panel, in an album, in the form of bookmarks, in a photo album, as a three-dimensional picture and many others.

Decorative panel of dried plants

For this option, you need a base, the material of which can be fabric, canvas, or cardboard. The herbarium materials are laid out with the picture that you want to create and preserve, then each element of the composition is glued and left to dry for a day under heavy pressure. The herbarium can be laid out from painted plants and elements, or it can remain in its natural color. After all work is completed, the panel must be inserted into the frame.

In album

The herbarium on album sheets is a mini-guide on botany. A separate plant is glued to each individual leaf. Instead of glue, you can use tape or thread with a needle. The latter option is guaranteed not to affect the evenness of the flower or leaf, and so that the stitches are not so noticeable, you can then carefully tint them with a similar color. To preserve the herbarium on for a long time, you can put thin tracing paper between the pages, or even better, place each sheet with a plant in a transparent file. All files can be collected in one folder - it’s beautiful and reliable.

Bookmarks

In order to make bookmarks, you need 2 strips of cardboard, which are glued together, and the ribbon of the future bookmark remains between them. A small composition is laid out on the surface of one of the sides; flowers or spikelets are better suited for such a small area.

The top of the mini-herbarium is covered with tracing paper (also suitable parchment paper) and lubricated with a mixture of PVA glue and water in a ratio of 4:1. The composition will be visible through the translucent paper, and the edges can be secured by sewing on a machine with thread of any color.

Herbarium painting

A painting using plants is a whole art that looks very unusual and beautiful. Part of the picture needs to be drawn with paints or pencils, and some elements should be laid out with petals, grains, and twigs. A little imagination - and the masterpiece will delight you with its originality.

Photo

Look how much different options design of the herbarium. You might find something you like.

How to design a herbarium

Photo album - this will be a mini book with a herbarium. Very similar to the way of storing a herbarium in an album, only the pictures and compositions will be small.

There is another type of herbarium - a clamshell. Sheets of paper are fastened together in a row, and the desired compositions or simply individual plants are laid out on them. When folded, it will be an ordinary notebook or book, and when unfolded, it will be a long strip with mini-pictures of plants.

Such a miniature composition looks very beautiful on the cover of a handmade postcard or on your favorite diary. It is best to secure the herbarium to the surface using self-adhesive film, which can be purchased at almost any stationery store.

If the herbarium is made in an album or photo album, the plants can be signed: names, a short description, medicinal properties(if the plant has them), where and when it was found. Signatures are best done on small labels, which are then pasted in the lower right corner of the page.

To interest a child in herbarium, you can offer him to buy a special bright album for this activity and an encyclopedia, where he can find all the names of leaves and flowers. You can search for information about plants on the Internet; here you will need the help of your parents. If the child knows that mom or dad will help in compiling a herbarium, childhood wish this will only increase.

Children are often asked to prepare materials for a herbarium at summer holidays. A walk through the forest looking for leaves and flowers, and then working on a sketchbook on a quiet evening is a great time for the whole family. When collecting and forming a herbarium, the most important thing is not the end result, but a leisurely process that will bring pleasure and joy to all family members. A original composition made from flowers and leaves will delight you for a long time and remind you of warm sunny days.

Video about herbariums

In these videos you will not only learn how to beautifully make a herbarium, but also learn about unusual species herbariums.

Autumn is in full swing, which means there are a lot of fallen leaves in the parks. This is the best time to collect herbariums. Today we will tell you about this educational and exciting process and prove that collecting plants is not only a way to learn something new, but also creative process. Dried leaves, flowers and herbs make incredible beautiful compositions. We'll give you some useful tips and we'll show you illustrative examples this technique.

The concept of herbarium traditionally includes two concepts. The first and most popular is collecting plants for subsequent drying and cataloging. The second is the creation of compositions based on selected dried flowers (without educational implications). Let's talk about them separately.

Herbarium as cataloging

Probably all children of the USSR and the 90s remember what a homemade plant catalog is. As a rule, natural history or botany teachers assigned it to be compiled for the summer. The students obediently searched for plants from the list, dried them in the sun and in books, and then pasted them into their notebooks.

The notebook page was folded in half, like an envelope. The plant was placed inside, and a note was made on the pocket: name / what species it belongs to / date of collection. To some, such catalogs seemed like a real punishment, but mostly the children excitedly went in search of oak leaves, blades of sedge grass and dandelion inflorescences. Drying them was quite a task.

In general, this is a very useful practice. Looking at pictures in a textbook is not as effective. It is much better to collect plants with your own hands, find all the information about them yourself and arrange everything in a herbarium. In short, this is a very important experience.

Nowadays, collecting herbariums is still relevant. Teachers still guide children in such hands-on activities. True, almost no one glues notebooks anymore. In any art department you can find a stand (or even several) dedicated to the collection of herbariums. There is everything here: special paper, special albums and even tools for the correct preparation of samples. By the way, modern herbarium albums even provide space for photography. That is, you can even capture the place where the sample was taken. In a word, now collecting herbarium has turned into an exciting game, which is actually not bad either.

Herbarium as a composition

In fact, these are not exactly herbariums. Paintings made from dried petals, leaves and herbs are more correctly called compositions. However, people call them herbariums. The name has taken root so well that it will probably not be possible to remove it from use.

Creating herbariums in the idea of ​​paintings is a wonderful creative process. There are even entire courses dedicated to this art.
Pictures from dried plants – great way decorate your home. These compositions make the house very cozy. They fill it with some special warmth.

Herbarium postcards are also very popular. In this case, drawings are applied to a cardboard base, supplemented with various dried flowers, which are fixed with glue. Others can also be placed here. natural materials. These cards look very cool.

But the most important thing is that the herbarium is an excellent activity for children's creativity. If you have a child, teach him the art of herbarium collection. Take him on a short trip through the park, select beautiful leaves, dry them, and then create a picture together. At the same time, you don’t have to know the names of all the plants (although this will be useful for the child, of course), the main thing here is beauty and inspiration. Such moments are never forgotten!

If you decide to master the art of collecting herbariums, you will need some useful tips.

Collection:

• never harvest plants after rain because this will make drying more difficult
• never break off branches, leaves and flowers - be sure to cut them with a knife or scissors
• never collect leaves and flowers damaged by diseases or blackened by rot
• to design albums, take several samples

Drying:

1. spread the collected plants on newspaper and leave for a day (indoors or outdoors if the sun is shining)
2. place the plants between two sheets of paper and place under a press
3. zigzag the plant if it is too large

Decor:

• use a glue stick to fix the petals and leaves
• use superglue and tweezers to secure small items
• avoid liquid adhesives, do not use paste
• choose as a panel special paper for herbariums or thick cardboard
• The finished painting can be placed in a frame under glass - this way it will live for a very long time

Don't be afraid to try to collect flower arrangement on one's own! Autumn is the right time for this creativity. Collect colored leaves, decorate them, create. Complete the compositions with bright drawings made using paints.

Try to assemble a flower in a vase using petals, blades of grass and leaves. Try making different animals from stems, branches and fancy leaves. Try to create an abstraction. The main thing is to start and you will see how great it is.

Making herbariums is a great way to decorate your home. A great idea is to make a lot of paintings and place them in wooden frames and hang them on the walls.

This decor will become the highlight of the interior and will always please the eye!

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