Historic record of local flora

SPECIMEN GAVE TEAM AT THE BOX 'THE SHIVERS', SAYS SARAH MARDEN

- 

THIS specimen gave some of our Collections Team the shivers when they came across it recently during an inventory of The Box's herbarium. It's Cerastium alpinum, more commonly known as Alpine mouse ear, or Alpine chickweed.

The herbarium at The Box contains around 10,000 individual sheets of pressed plants. Many significant collectors are represented and there are particularly strong collections of local seaweeds and ferns. Most of the specimens were collected in the mid to late 1800s, with the earliest collections originating in Cornwall in 1780.

The herbarium is particularly valuable to scientists as a historic record of local flora. It shows changes in distribution and form over the past 150 years, often as a result of climate change. In addition, access is increasingly requested by artists and students.