Taking a Specimen

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Sorry about all these posts guys, very new to this hobby! I was reading through David Lang's 'Illustrated Wild Flower Finder's Calendar' and he states in the first few pages that small specimens may be collected to study difficult and variable species. I assume that you should only take a sample of a flower when there is a large number of the particular species in the area you are looking.

How do you store each specimen you take from the field?

I am, as you can tell a bit confused!

Cheers Jacob

[Paul mabbott]

You should never collect rare or endangered species. Having said that, beginners may not be sure what is rare or endangered so it's always as well to try to find out if any rare species are present on the site you're sampling.

Indeed, for a beginner, it's really best if you can go out with an expert or at least someone with a bit of practice. Natural History Societies and the like have experience and often arrange field trips.

Photograph where possible, especially if it will be easy to re-visit should anything strange turn up - get clear pics of all parts of the plant - flowers are sometimes the least helpful part for diagnosis.

For the winter months you might like to make a herbarium by mounting some plants - instructions at Section of Botany - Mounting Guildelines and elsewhere.

You must not collect specimens from an SSSI without permission and the same probably applies to all private land.

Good luck

Originally Posted by Scarlet Pimpernel

Sorry about all these posts guys, very new to this hobby! I was reading through David Lang's 'Illustrated Wild Flower Finder's Calendar' and he states in the first few pages that small specimens may be collected to study difficult and variable species. I assume that you should only take a sample of a flower when there is a large number of the particular species in the area you are looking.

How do you store each specimen you take from the field?

I am, as you can tell a bit confused!

Cheers Jacob