What is a herbarium?

A facility that houses many plant specimens is called a herbarium. There are a large number of herbaria throughout the world, including universities, museums, and botanical gardens. The most common way to preserve a plant as a specimen is to make a herbarium specimen. With a herbarium specimen, you lose the 3-dimensionality of the plant but it’s easy to handle and manage and doesn’t take up much storage space. Plant specimens must be stored correctly to prevent mold or vermiculation from forming. Specimens can be housed and properly managed in a herbarium. These accumulated herbarium specimens are used for a variety of purposes.

Plant specimens from the 1820s, preserved by Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), a German physician, botanist, and traveler. Siebold taught Japanese oshibana ("pressed flower craft") classes to Japanese. (Makino Herbarium collection)

It’s easy to make beautiful botanical specimens by creating your own herbarium.

The Plant Specimen Preparation Kit makes it easy to solve the problems that have traditionally been part of creating conventional pressed flowers and plants.

It’s easy to do and takes less time
The beautiful plant colors are saved
A special bag prevents damage so you’ll feel a great satisfaction with the beautiful results of your efforts.

From personal hobby use to a full-fledged research application, the Plant Specimen Preparation Kit offers a variety of uses. Plant drying, plant preservation, re-drying the drying mats...all the tools you need to create beautiful specimens!