T his wildflower bloomed in the low pine woods along North Carolina’s Tar River. The blossom, called a pink lady’s slipper, was plucked nearly nine decades ago — on May 16, 1936 — and stored away.of pink lady’s slippers, picked roughly three decades later, in 1962, were in full bloom a few days earlier, on May 12.
up to a million species of plants and animals, herbaria captured the plant world before the onslaught of climate change, habitat loss and other human activity was fully apparent. Understanding how plant species’ ranges and physical characteristicsThe Duke Herbarium is one of the biggest in the country, stretching back more than a century and covering the southeastern United States, a biodiversity hot spot where many species are disappearing.
Some prominent U.S. universities, such as Stanford and Princeton, have ditched natural history collections as scientists were increasingly studying the inner workings of cells under microscopes rather than focusing on the whole organism. In 2017, the University of Louisiana at MonroeToday, plant curators say technological advances mean herbaria are going through a renaissance of their own.
Some of the most powerful work done at herbaria involves uncovering so-called “dark extinctions” — that is, the loss of species scientists didn’t even know existed. Decades can pass between when botanists bring a plant to a herbarium and when it is determined to be a new species. The only way researchers know some extinct plants once existed is through the careful detective work of herbarium curators.
It would take a $25 million endowment for Duke to keep the herbarium, she added. Alberts said she did not know yet what Duke will do with the 9,500 square feet of office space on campus it now occupies. She thinks these sort of plant collections are better kept by museums rather than academic departments.