Community herbarium to launch at Strathnaver Museum

29 July 2024

Members of Tongue Gardening Group have been working with nature conservation programme Species on the Edge and artist Joanne B Kaar to create a community herbarium that will be permanently housed at Strathnaver Museum. They will be launching the herbarium, which will be available to borrow, explore and add to, at a drop-in event on Sunday 11^th August 2024, 12 – 2pm, at the Kyle Centre in Tongue.

A herbarium is a collection of pressed, preserved plants mounted on paper. Herbaria are usually associated with professional scientists and universities where plants are stored, catalogued, and arranged systematically for research and identification purposes. This herbarium, however, has been created as part of a ‘Documenting Our Gardens’ project which seeks to make plant study more inclusive by celebrating local people’s connection to nature through one of our most accessible green spaces: the garden. 

Whilst it is hoped that the community herbarium will become an important document for future researchers interested in exploring changing horticultural/ garden trends, its primary function is to honour local people’s relationship with the plants in their gardens by making space for everyone to contribute. Contributions might be a pressed specimen from a garden or annotations on the herbarium sheets with personal stories, recipes or remedies relating to the plants in the collection. The herbarium will also be available for groups to borrow for use as inspiration for conversations, eliciting memories, producing art or carrying out research. 

Louise Senior, People Engagement Officer for Species on the Edge on the North Coast, said: “For conservation to be effective, people must feel connected to nature. For those of us who are lucky enough to have a garden, it’s probably the space where we spend most time in nature: working with our soil, tending our plants, watching wildlife, enjoying the fruits of our labour, and bringing them into our homes in the form of food, decoration and medicine. This project seeks to explore those very visceral relationships with the natural world on our doorstep. Not everyone can hike along a clifftop to find a rare species, but we can all rejoice in the everyday plants that are central to our lives, and from there we can foster an understanding of, and empathy for, the natural world beyond the garden gate.”

The ‘Documenting Our Gardens’ project was conceived by visual artist Joanne B Kaar, whose previous work includes the Portable Museum of Curiosity inspired by the pressed herbarium sheets of Robert Dick, baker and botanist of Thurso. Joanne and her mother, Liz O’Donnell, have been building their own herbarium for over ten years, and she recognised the potential encompassed in a community-wide approach to creating a herbarium.

Joanne said: “It was the beauty of old pressed herbarium sheets, some plants perfect and filling the page while others, tiny and surrounded by a variety of labels with scribbled notes and numbering systems like a secret code to be cracked, that drew me in. I enjoyed following these clues and was surprised at just how much you could learn from them, not just about the plant specimen, but a snapshot of time, social history. Learning how important these herbarium collections could be in the future, and that plants are still pressed and preserved in the same way, together with my mum, a keen gardener and artist, the seeds of an idea were sown. I'm still rubbish at remembering plant names.”

Tongue Gardening Group spent a weekend learning about the processes required for the successful long-term storage of plant specimens, including the use of archival quality materials such as paper, ink and adhesives; proper storage environments; and effective pressing processes. They have been encouraged to spend the summer collecting and pressing specimens using the herbarium kit provided, gathering interesting titbits about their specimens, and reminiscing on their relationship with their chosen plants. 

Ruth McDonogh, one of the members of Tongue Gardening Group, reflected: “Collecting plants and pressing them has made me look at them differently in their usual habitat. I’m more aware of the stages the plants go through as they grow and their beauty at each stage. I’m also remembering and collecting stories.”

Whilst the Tongue Gardening Group have assembled the foundations of the herbarium, it will belong to the communities of the north coast. The entire kit, including herbarium sheets, plant press, adhesives and a small selection of herbarium books will be available on loan from Strathnaver Museum. Groups and individuals will be supported to add their own contributions to the collection and to use it to supplement work they are engaged in. 

The plant specimens in herbaria are an important resource for conservation science. They can help researchers to understand and track the success and failure of plant species over time. A topical illustration is the spread of invasive non-native plants which can cause real problems for biodiversity. Many of these plants were initially introduced as ornamental garden plants, and they have ‘jumped the fence’ and spread into the wider environment negatively impacting our wildlife. 

By documenting garden plants, noting their current uses and behaviour in gardens, we hope to give scientists an early warning for plants that could become problematic in future. The next Rhododendron ponticum, Giant Hogweed or New Zealand pigmyweed could be here, hiding in the border, and we need to spot it early enough to stop it spreading out of control. 

Sarah Bird, Senior Project Officer at Plantlife, said: “Conservation messages are mostly gloomy today, and it’s difficult to know what we can do to help, but this project is a ray of light, and a great idea for positive action. By making a herbarium our north coast gardeners are recording the plants they grow in a beautiful and traditional way. They are celebrating favourite plants and the stories around them, but also sounding a warning about the plant ‘thugs’ that take over the garden and escape into the wild. This is extremely important and valuable because invasive non-native species are identified as one of the top issues for biodiversity conservation worldwide, and the changing climate may exacerbate the problems they cause.”

The event on Sunday 11^th August will provide an opportunity to view the herbarium and find out how you or your group can access it, whether as an artefact for inspiration or as a resource to contribute to. Visitors will also have the chance to make their own sun-print picture with flowers and leaves and to blend a herbal teabag using dried botanicals. Everyone is welcome; children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, email [email protected]