[DIYbio] Saving A Plant Specimen

It has always caused trouble for me to find a reasonable way to squirrel a
plant away for future study and identification. The standard way of gluing the
specimen to a double sized sheet of paper and storage in drawers takes up a
lot of room and requires a chest of specialized drawers.

Some time ago I figured out that using standard size of paper and cardboard
boxes the size of a quarto book allowed storage on book shelves. If airtight
doors are available for the book shelves then volatile insecticides can be
used to keep out dermestids and other such pests. The cardboard box was such
an attractive idea that I had 100 made up. They were also handy for storing
rocks, loose papers, shells and other small objects. I ran out of boxes. They
are no longer easy to get. I have been reusing them for 20 years but the
vicissitudes of fate necessitates another solution.

This last week another solution presented itself. Wirebound and three hole
punched notebooks are inexpensive (often for sale for 10 cents in August). The
wire binding allows for expansion as the plants are added with out the tension
that a bound volume would place on the plants. I have found that the initial
drying can be done in them using the usual expedient of a pile of books to
provide the pressure. The initial labeling can be written as the plants are
loaded. Then after the initial drying period, the plants can be glued into
place and re-pressed until the plants (and glue) are thoroughly dry.

I have already found out that the large D-ring binders can be used to hold 5
to 10 wirebounds together to go into the book shelves and eliminate the
floppiness of the original wirebounds. I have been including some thin sections
between two plastic slip covers held in place by a drop of hot melt adhesive.
The D-rings are often available at such places as Goodwill for a nominal
price.

The only thing that really goes wrong from the chemists' point of view is that
the volatiles are lost along with the water and air oxidation can occur. You
can't have everything.

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