This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Image of the Week #11, October 03, 2011:
From:800,000 Manmade Plant Fossils (and counting) by Jennifer Frazer at The Artful Amoeba
Original Source:Specimens From The Duke Herbarium
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The simplicity of a pressed passionflower on a white background makes it immediately useful for study and harkens back to an earlier age of naturalist methods to study science. Sometimes the best image is the item itself. Delicate and evocative of a watercolor, this passionflower and the other examples blogger Jennifer Frazer displays are enticing. Flowers have long been a favourite in design and decor, and here their beauty stands proudly while in the service of research and documentation. To think that Duke University has a staggering 800 000 of these pressed herbarium sheets can certainly make one realize, as Frazer suggests, that we try to stop and appreciate plants more.