A summer walk in nature is the perfect opportunity to observe the plant world that surrounds us.

During your holidays, to preserve a poetic souvenir of your explorations, why not make a summer herbarium for young and old? Framed, it also makes a nice decoration for your home.

The herbarium highlights the botanical diversity of a landscape. It illustrates an ecosystem and allows you to observe living things as you put yourself in the shoes of a naturalist.

Let’s discover how to fill and make this precious repertoire of plants.

START COLLECTING

The first step consists in collecting: using scissors, cut leaves, flowers, stems and roots according to the parts you want to preserve.

Place them carefully in a portfolio before bringing them home.

When collecting, write down the location and date, the appearance of the plants, their colour, scent and their specific surroundings in a notepad.

You can collect in fields, woods, on the coast, in your garden: different landscapes offer different plants.

DRYING THE PLANTS

Plants should be dried in newspaper to absorb the moisture, pressed under large books to flatten them properly. You will be able to display them at their best advantage is you avoid wrinkling them during the three-week drying process.

MAKING A HERBARIUM

After removing your dried plants, you can glue them onto thick paper, such as blotting paper. The white glue should be liquid and should not stain the plants. A pair of tweezers can be used to make the gluing process easier.

At the bottom of the page, you should indicate:
Scientific name of the plant
Species
Place and date of collecting
Habitat
Additional information
Name of the budding explorer

A herbarium can be kept for hundreds of years when conditions are good. Framing a leaf and turning it into a picture invites nature into your home.

Enjoy your walk and, above all, good collecting to all explorers.

*IMPORTANT : To respect the environment, do not collect protected species or species that are isolated or rare.