Procedures

These are a few procedures we follow for all users of the herbarium.

General

Food and drink are not allowed in the collection. This is a precaution to help reduce attracting any pests into the collection and damaging any specimens.

All specimens from the collection are not to be removed from the collection, without permission from the staff. Dissection and removal of materials from specimens is not allowed. If you require it, you can request those permissions from the staff and so proper annotations can be made.

Users do not need to file any specimens after working with them. Please set all materials on the carts at the end of the aisle and herbarium staff will file the materials for you. Misfiled materials are very difficult to find in the future.

If you require a specimen to be annotated, please inform the staff so that we may help prepare labels, and file materials aside for any changes needed.

Training

If you have not worked at the herbarium before and are unsure about herbarium usage and procedures, please contact us and set up a training session. This may relate to the handling of specimens, finding particular species in the collection, or the submission of specimens to the herbarium. We have several dissecting scopes, workstations, and literature to help you identify and investigate your materials.

Freezing Procedure

All plant material intended to be worked on at the herbarium must be frozen, at the herbarium, for a minimum of 72 hours beforehand. This treatment is intended to eliminate insect pests from being introduced to the collection. This is vital to maintain the health of the collection for future use.

Loan requests

If you are interested in receiving a loan of materials housed at the W.P. Fraser herbarium, please contact us. We will require a list of species of interest, along with an accurate delivery address of another herbarium that is able to receive and care for the specimens for the duration of the loan. Loan duration is typically 6 months, extensions are usually available upon request.

Destructive Sampling requests

Destructive sampling requests can also be made for specimens. These include seed and DNA sampling. Please contact us with a species list and we can determine if the species of interest have adequate material to support your request.