Question

What problems could emerge if the herbaria specimens are.....

a. improperly collected:

b. improperly preserved:

c. improperly mounted:

d. improperly labelled:

e. improperly identified:

Answer 1

Problems that can be faced through improper collection would involve:

Improper collection leads to risk of damaging specimen. Petals may be knocked off, stems may get broken or bent if proper size of bags are not used.

Improper preservation may lead to curling or wrinkling during the drying process, if care is not taken it may lead to improper identification of requisite plant parts.

Improper mounting may cause may cause to damage to specimens when ever moved because mounting provides a physical support that allows a specimen to be handled and stored with minimum damage.

improperly labelled: Proper labels hold importance as specimen is incomplete without label data and it must be accurate if it is not done properly it can lead to the misinformation of scientific name of specimen, habitat, plant description, collection number, date of collection and mostly it will not provide proper description of a plant.

improperly identified:The plant species must be identified properly taken enough time and effort in case of  any doubt, specimen should be send to an expert of taxonomy for identification purpose than only it can be an addition to a herbarium because improper identification can be misleading towards the identification of new plant species. Further processing of herbarium always requires proper identification.