WA Herbarium
The Herbarium's four-hundred thousand plant specimens have a replacement value of fifteen million Australian dollars.
There are two major collection. The Vascular Collection (flowering plants, ferns and their allies, and cone bearing plants) is mounted on stiff sheets of paper for storage, whereas the Non-Vascular Collections (mosses and their relatives, algae, fungi and lichens) are mostly placed in special packets.
The entire collection is named and arranged according to a standard classification system that groups related plants. Using such a system, specimens of any particular species can be quickly located and the label information on it retrieved by researchers.
Many of the twelve thousand plant specimens added to the Herbarium each year are collected by Herbarium staff and other research staff in Conservation and Land Management. Duplicate material of the specimens is used by the Herbarium to exchange with other herbaria throughout the world and to acquire additional specimens for the collection.
Properly conserved and maintained, the herbarium collections are an increasingly valuable permanent record of the state's vanishing spectrum of plant life.
Members of the public who wish to identify their own specimens can use the "Community Reference Herbarium". With representative specimens of two thirds of the state's flora, it is an important resource for use in indentifying and obtaining information on the native and naturalised plants of Western Austrlia. To identify a plant using the "Community Reference Herbarium", you would need to bring your specimen to the Herbarium and compare it with those in the reference collection.
However, to ensure the secruity of the collection, Herbarium staff must treat all incoming specimens for insects before they can be taken into the building. Enquire at the front office. If the collection is less than nine centimetres thick it can be treated immediately in a microwave oven. Otherwise, arrangements need to be made in advance.
A reference library is located with the "Community Reference Herbarium". It has many helpful botanical works to assist users to identify their specimens.
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