ï~~1999
THE MICHIGAN BOTANIST
57
LABELING OF HERBARIUM SPECIMENS
Edward G. Voss
Herbarium, North University Bldg.
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1057
With interest strong (or required by law) in accurate identification of threatened, endangered, and otherwise protected plant species, not to mention general
interest in our natural heritage, many individuals and agencies prepare specimens to submit for identification to herbaria and competent individuals. Such
specimens can be important documentation for species occurrences, as well as
valuable samples for persons studying particular species.
However, if these specimens are to fulfill their maximum potential, they must
not only be good specimens but also be provided with good labels. Even if a collection has well-pressed flowers and fruit, not tangled in a large wad, possesses
basal parts (rhizomes or roots), and displays both surfaces of leaves, it loses
much of its value if the label says merely "Collected north of Lansing." After all,
Sault Ste. Marie is north of Lansing! That extreme example of a vague label
might have been satisfactory (or the best one could do) a century and a half ago.
But modern criteria for a good label demand both more information and greater
precision.
Few herbaria have an over-abundance of space for additional specimens, but
most are glad to receive good ones, well-labeled, especially of interesting
species or from under-collected regions. That is one way in which they augment
their collections, and retention of desirable specimens is usually the only recompense expected in return for identification services. Skimpy little scraps of
plants, with data scrawled on scratch paper, are less welcome (and likely to be
discarded) for they provide nothing of much scientific value for further research
or study-and, indeed, they may be so incomplete as to be unidentifiable.
Having examined and recorded data from approximately a quarter-million labels in the course of preparing text and maps for Michigan Flora, I feel somewhat prepared to offer advice. The outline following is intended to help in
preparing truly useful and informative labels. Label information is sometimes
even more valuable than the specimen itself. Only the collector knows fully the
circumstances of collection, and thus bears responsibility for sharing (on the
label) what he or she knows about the locality, habitat, appearance, and attributes
of the plant-whatever cannot, years later, be determined from the pressed, dry
carcass. The collector's original label, for better or for worse, is therefore carefully preserved with the specimen. Most herbaria do not have the staff to retype
labels, even if they wanted to risk making errors in transcription from hastily
scrawled data. Some people, unfortunately, write labels with no more concept of
permanence than for a grocery shopping list, stringing together fragments of
habitat and locality in random sequence, using obscure local names of places (in
