Where to find the exhibition room «Cabinet de curiosités»
and the exhibit The multiple lives of herbaria
Lucy will take you to explore
the fabulous world of
herbaria.
During the journey, she will
ask you a few questions.
In case of extreme urgency
only, you can find the
answers at the end of the
booklet.
This activity booklet is to be completed jointly by youngsters
and older ones as a family activity. It is available at the Botanic
Shop. The texts of the exhibition can be viewed on the
following web page: http://www.ville-ge.ch/cjb/cdec.php
1
It’s amazing! Take a look at
the herbarium specimen
Lucy took out of the
herbarium in Geneva. She
needs to redo the labels.
To help her, find the
specimen in the exhibit,
compare labels and copy the
missing information.
2
A herbarium is…
 An underground field where farmers grow grass
 A collection of dried plant specimens mounted on
card stock
 A kitchen shelf where aromatic herbs are kept
The herbaria of the CJBG grow over time, because botanists
around the world have been collecting plants for years and
gathering their specimens in the great international herbaria.
Watch the video which introduces some of the past and
present plant collectors who have contributed to this
immense endeavor.
3
You can make your own herbarium at
home, like Lucy.
It’s important that you read all the
instructions in order to succeed !
• Before collecting anything, make sure the plant is neither
rare nor protected.
• Write down in a notebook the colors of the living plant, its
flowers and fruits, depending on the season. You can also
take a picture.
• Collect the plants with shears or scissors. Place each one in
a plastic bag, along with a tag with your name, the date
and location of the collection written in pencil.
• Dry the specimens between sheets of absorbent paper
(e.g. newspaper), placed all together under some heavy
books. The papers should be changed every day for the
samples to dry completely.
• Mount each dry specimen on card stock with adhesive
tape, along with a tag specifying the plant’s name, the
place where it was collected and date as well as your
name. Your specimen is ready!
• Classify the samples alphabetically
Derived from an exhibition at the Paris botanical garden, MNHN, Paris
4
HINT: you will find the answers in the cartoon of Lucy
shown in the “First life of herbaria” panel of the exhibition.
1. It’s important to keep recent specimens,
but also … ones.
2. Lucy opens up the herbarium to all, then
throws something to the trash.
3. The specimens are all gathered in
the same place.
4. Lucy organizes the herbarium
specimens in a very specific order.
5. Lucy dries her specimen with a welladapted object.
5
Lucy brought a rather strange machine to the exhibition: a
kind of big metal box on wheels.
Find it and write down its name:
It’s a
This machine scans herbarium specimens. It can take high
resolution pictures of the plants. These then can be viewed on
a computer or published on internet.
To see one of these pictures, go to the page www.villege.ch/musinfo/bd /cjb/chg, and type in the name Helianthus
annuus.
Click on the picture and use
the zoom at your disposal to
look at the specimen up
close.
6
Find the UV lamp and observe the lichens inside. Their
bright colors are due to the molecules that react to UV light.
Which colors do you see?
Here are some objects used to analyze these molecules. Link
up the names to the corresponding objects:
Micropipettes

Chromatography tank

Binocular lens


1

2

3
7
Botanists collect plants all over the world! What type of
research do they do and what is it used for ?
Here are some questions to guide you. Look for hints on the
exhibit posters.
1.
Where does this plant grow?
Capurodendron greveanum
2. Cotula coronopifolia is a plant
originating from ……………… ?
3. Did Silene gigantea already
grow in Greece two million years
ago ?
8
In the showcase, look for the herbarium specimen of
Hedyotis adscencionis. Observe it closely because it is
unique! This specimen is one of the only remaining
traces of this species on Earth.
Lysimachia minoricensis is a plant that has disappeared
from its natural habitat. Its species is preserved alive in
cultivation. What country does it come from ?
So, what do you think ?
True or False ?
In the herbarium of Geneva, there are :
- Specimens of invasive species


- Specimens of plants that have
disappeared from their natural habitat


- Plants collected long ago


- Plants from which one can extract DNA


9
10
11
p.2
TYPUS
p.3 What is a herbarium ?
A collection of dried plant specimens mounted on
card stock
p.5 Crosswords :
1. Old - 2. Lock - 3. Herbarium - 4. Alphabetical 5. Press
p.6 This machine is an herbscan
p.7 1. Chromatography tank,
2. Micropipettes,
3. Binocular lens
p.8 1. It grows in Madagascar
2. It comes from South Africa
3. No, it is estimated to have appeared between
-1.5 et -1 million years ago
p.9 true – true – true – true
12
Director
Pierre-André Loizeau
Authors
Rhéa Garratt, Magali Stitelmann
Drawings
Maud Oïhénart
Map
Nicolas Wyler
Translation
Rhéa Garratt
Exhibition curators
Yamama Naciri, Laurent Gautier
Reading committee
Philippe Clerc, Fred Stauffer, Louis Nusbaumer, Daniel
Hoffman
Printing
Centrale municipale d’achats et d’impression CMAI
Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève, March 2017
16