At the National Herbarium of New South Wales, specimens of plant species are treated with reverence. They are kept in temperature-controlled sealed vaults, in immaculate condition, behind thick walls of rammed earth that are fire- and waterproof. These plants, after all, are precious: the information that holds the past and the future. As collections manager Hannah McPherson puts it: “They are here for all time.”
When author and academic Prudence Gibson first came to the herbarium, at its old site in the Royal Botanic Garden, she was “changed”. Established in 1853, with 1.4m specimens and 8,000 more coming in each year, the collection is currently worth $280m. The sight of so many plant specimens, Gibson says, was “dizzying”. Last September, the entire collection moved to the Australian Botanic Garden in Mount Annan, where it now resides in a state-of-the-art building.
