Final Product

The Sandy Hook Interactive Herbarium is an ongoing, five-year project for the Directed Field Research program. Therefore, all of the work completed this year is not the end of the project, but rather progress toward the end result. The end result for the entire Herbarium is so create a resource of the indigenous plants present on Sandy Hook that is accurate, informative and accessible to the public.
The finished product for the Plant Pressing department of the Herbarium is the actual specimens, displayed in Riker boxes. The Riker boxes need to include the specimens in a manner that displays all aspects of the plant, including stems, leaves, roots, flowers, buds, berries and other special characteristics.
My specific role in the Plant Pressing department is to create the front and back labels for the finished Riker boxes. The labels on the Riker boxes must be informative and accurate, and presented in language that is clear to a common reader. The labels on all the Riker boxes will all follow the same format. We plan to have between twenty and thirty finished specimens by the end of the year.
Next year's group will pick up where we left off. They will collect, identify, press, mount, research and label their own specimens. They will also complete the specimens that we had not. We have made very large strides forward with our specimens this year and we are proud of our progress.

Female American Pokeweed, Beach Plum and Phragmites Riker boxes created this year