Bio 203

• Equipments used for plant collection

  • Clipper
  • Machete (strong knife)
  • Pruning shears or Secatear
  • Forcep
  • Vasculum
  • Pen (pencil or biro)
  • Small stage or tag
  • Digger
  • Polythene bag
  • Global Positioning System (GPS)
  • Camera
  • Handlens
• Field notes


  • Record information on place of collection, habitat, plant morphology, vernacular names, suspected or known genera and families, number of plants
• Parts of plant specimens to be collected


  • Whole plants (especially herbs)
  • Flowers
  • Fruit seeds
  • Bulbs
  • Tuber
  • Leaves
  • Roots
  • Rhizomes
• Herbarium


  Collection of preserved plant specimen and associated data used for scientific study
• Herbarium preparation


  1. Plant collection

  2. Pressing

  3. Drying

  4. Poisoning

  5. Mounting

  6. Labeling

  7. Storage
• Pressing


  • Pressing should be done in a warm dry place
  • Absorbent paper should be changed intermittently
  • Thick specimens should be split lengthwise
  • Only ripe or mature seeds should be collected
  • Bulbs should be dried without splitting
  • Roots and underground parts should be washed thoroughly before pressing
  • Fresh specimens should be arranged within the pressing paper
  • Care should be taken to press the plant parts attached to the plants in their natural position
  • Specimens should be free from insect feeding, fungi infection and any pathological symptoms
  • Single species should be pressed in a folded pressing paper
  • Fleshy fruits should be washed clean of matrix and allowed to dry in the air
  • Herbacious specimens longer than 40cm may be folded into V – shaped and M – shaped manner and pressed
• Drying with artificial heat

  • Plant specimens become brittle during drying
  • Species loose their waxy bloom and colour
  • Sometimes, the species get permanently marked with the ridges of corrugates
• Drying without artificial heat

  • Longer time is needed for drying the specimens
  • Blotters are to be changed at least three times during the entire process, and wet ones are to be dried in the sun before using again
  • Large number of blotters are needed
  • Less number of specimens can be processed per collection
  • Specimens are likely to be infected by fungi because longer time is taken to complete drying
  • Larva present within the flowers eat some of the important parts
  • Labour cost of drying per specimenis high
• Poisoning


  Treating pressed dried plant specimens with chemicals to protect them against microbial and insect attack
• Mounting


  1. Gluing or stitching poisoned plant specimens on sheet of white cardboards or strong papers

  2. Applying highly viscous, clear glues or adhesives

  3. Placing stone weights or sandbags to facilitate setting and adhesion

  4. Sewing bulky parts of some specimens to the cardboard using thread and needle
• Precautions during mounting


  • Mount only one specimen on one sheet
  • Lower part of the plant should be at the base of the sheet
  • Label should be pasted or printed on the right hand bottom of the sheet
• Labelling


  Attaching a small, rectangular sheet or slip of data bearing important information such as name of plant and family, name of collector, collection number, date and site of collection, descriptive notes, and name of person who identified or confirmed the identity
• Storage


  1. Putting prepared voucher herbarium specimens in folders, which are kept in storage boxes or cabinets

  2. Placing insect-repellant chemicals like naphthalene or dichlorobenzene and naphthalene crystals in the storage boxes

  3. Periodically fumigating or spraying the herbarium with insecticides

  4. Keeping each specimen in a folded specimen cover, with many species of a genus kept together in a genus cover
• Significance of herbarium


  • Discovering or confirming plant identity
  • Providing locality data for planning field trips
  • Documenting the concepts of specialists who studied the specimens
  • Providing data for floristic studies
  • Providing materials for microscopic observation
  • Providing samples for forensic plant identification
  • Serving as an archive for related materials
  • Locating rare or possibly extinct species for conservation
  • Serving as an educational tool for the public
  • Serving as a repository for type specimens
• Herbarium voucher


  A pressed, dried specimen of a plant that is attached to a sheet of paper, with collection data
• Voucher number


  The collection number or field number of the collector of the plant specimen
• Citation of herbarium specimens

  • Theophilus LSH 10,000
  • Francis FHI 15.2I00
  • Stephen UIH 11.675
  • Ibrahim IUH 12, 400
• Taxidermy


  A way of preparing, stuffing and/or mounting an animal for display or study
• Taxidermy


  • Involves arranging an animal's real skin over a fake body to make the animal look alive
  • A way of preserving the body so that scientists or Museum visitors can see what the animal was like when it was alive
• Work of a taxidermist

  1. Creating a replication of a lifelike three-dimensional animal for display and preservation purposes

  2. Incorporating carpentry, woodwork, tanning, molding and casting

  3. Painting, drawing or sculpting animals' organs and tissues with man-made materials

  4. Preserving fur, feathers, antlers and scales for use in the figures
• Dry specimen preservation


  Preserving aquatic species like crabs, lobsters, prawn, and shrimps, or terrestrial species like snakes, giant rats or even insects
• Wet preservation


  Preserving large animals like snake, lizards, rat etc. by injecting them with 10-15 ml of formalin, and then soaking them in 70% forming, which must be changed every two to three years
• Process and method of Animal Taxidermy

  1. Specimen is collected live or dead

  2. Euthanizing the animal using chloroform

  3. Recording characteristics like colour of feather, feet, beak, eye or iris and other exposed parts before killing

  4. Recording name of specimen, place of collection, date of collection, purpose of preparation, sex of specimen

  5. Using tools like knife, measuring tape, scissors, forceps, brain spoon, wires, spring balance, pliers, cotton wool, dusting powder, formalin syringe and needle, sewing needle, naphthalene balls, mounting board

  6. Gently removing the skin, placing the specimen on a clean and dry table surface

  7. Making a small cut in the skin from the middle of the breastbone to the anus, separating the skin from the flesh, disconnecting the legs and tail, cutting the intestine, detaching the tail

  8. Injecting preservative into the body cavity, limbs and tail
• Formalin


  • A solution of formaldehyde gas in water, used as a preservative at 10% dilution
  • Advantages: inexpensive, generally available, small bulk of concentrated stock solution may be diluted as needed, specimens almost never decay in it
  • Disadvantages: irritating odor, poisonous, may cause skin irritation or rash, tends to make specimens brittle and fade out certain colors, must be stored in rustproof containers
• Alcohol


  • Usually sold at 95% strength, used at full strength for injection and fixing, and at 3 parts 95% to 1 part water for storage of reptiles
  • Alcoholic beverages, shaving lotions and Bay Rum can be used in emergencies without dilution, but are only 50% ethyl alcohol
• Preparation for preservation


  1. Introducing liquid preservative into the body cavity, limbs and tail as soon as possible after the animal is killed, either by injection or by making deep cuts

  2. Injecting frogs and toads through the belly, deflating puffed bodies, only using enough preservative to make the specimen look natural

  3. Not needing to inject or slit most salamanders, but may inject a small amount or make a single slit in the abdomen if the specimen looks "caved in"

  4. Preserving tadpoles and small salamander larvae in 10% formalin

  5. Injecting lizards through the belly, making a series of slits in the underside of the tail, and everting one hemipenis in males

  6. Making a series of injections or slits in the belly and tail of snakes, and everting one hemipenis in males

  7. Injecting preservative into the body cavity just in front of each limb in turtles, and injecting or slitting the limbs, neck and tail
• Pure culture


  A laboratory culture containing a single species of organism
• Obtaining a pure culture


  1. Transferring a small sample into new, sterile growth medium to disperse the individual cells

  2. Thinning the sample many fold before inoculating the new medium
• In 1877 Koch published an important paper on the investigation, preservation, and photographing of bacteria
• Koch described his method of preparing thin layers of bacteria on glass slides and fixing them by gentle heat
• Koch invented the apparatus and the procedure for the hanging-drop technique
• In 1878 Koch summarized his experiments on the etiology of wound infection
• Koch observed differences in pathogenicity for different species of hosts and demonstrated that the animal body is an excellent apparatus for the cultivation of bacteria
• Koch's postulates


  • 1. A specific microorganism is always associated with a given disease
  • 2. The microorganism can be isolated from the diseased animal and grown in pure culture in the laboratory
  • 3. The cultured microbe will cause disease when transferred to a healthy animal
  • 4. The same type of microorganism can be isolated from the newly infected animal
• Koch discovered the tubercle bacillus and established its presence in the tissues of animals and humans suffering from the disease
• On March 24, 1882, Koch announced before the Physiological Society of Berlin that he had isolated and grown the tubercle bacillus, which he believed to be the cause of all forms of tuberculosis
• Cell


  The smallest living unit of life
• Cell theory


  The explanation of the relationship between cells and all living organisms
• Microscope


  Instrument used to magnify objects too small to be seen with the naked eye
• Simple light microscope


  Microscopy tool that uses visible light and one lens to magnify an object