State Park Herbarium Collection
~ by Jim Eagleman
Wildflowers, blooming shrubs, and flowering trees in Brown County have had a good opportunity this spring to meet their destiny— to become fertilized by insects, birds, or wind, and to mature to seed. We enjoy this annual treat of color when the botanic world kicks into high gear. As an avid gardener / plant lover friend says,“ If you aren’ t overjoyed by the green plants outside your door, there’ s something wrong with you!”
It is contagious, uplifting, and exciting to see nature return to the landscape. While admittedly a winter nature lover, I anticipate and welcome the first park flowers, birds returning, and warm weather like most.
Add a morel mushroom feast with bluegill fillets to the mix with my favorite beverage and I am as happy a camper as there ever was.
Park herbarium record of clearweed with family, genus, species, location, and habitat information.
52 Our Brown County • May / June 2015
Park volunteer and herbarium collector David Mow. courtesy photo
And where better to experience these delightful events than right here in beautiful Brown County.
Keeping tabs on this vegetative variety in the park, what trees and plants exist, and documenting their occurrence could be an overwhelming job— unless you like this sort of thing and have a detailed and orderly inclination for organization. This is the habit of Nature Center volunteer and Master Gardener, David Mow from Spencer, who has begun the seemingly impossible job of identifying, collecting and preserving all the vascular plants in Brown County State Park’ s 16 thousand acres. This summer, David will begin collecting the woody species of park trees and shrubs in flower. How is a project of this magnitude accomplished?
David started collecting the park’ s herbaceous plants in 2013. He indicated an interest in the project after attending a plant workshop on local flora a year earlier. He first secured a DNR collecting permit allowing him to legally gather a specimen of every plant he observed in bloom along the many horse, bike, fire, and hiking trails. He photographed each plant and listed the habitat, sun-exposure, and GPS coordinates. Rare plants were not collected but noted as to location and health. At the Nature Center each plant was identified, pressed, mounted on herbarium paper, and filed in a wooden cabinet with other plant family specimens.
The Nature Center collection of herbaceous species now totals 327 plants representing 60 botanic families. Specimens are used in interpretive programs on plant conservation, family characteristics of common species, and general botany. For many attending it may be the first time they have become aware of the varied vegetative community or a forest ecosystem.
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