Unique pressed plant collection on show in Horncastle

The Seaward Herbarium (a collection of pressed plants) was donated to the Society by Professor Mark Seaward and is the result of a lifetime collecting plants as part of his career as a Professor of Environmental Biology at Bradford University. Paul Scott (left) from the Society is pictured showing the collection of 1,000 plants to Hilary McMaster and Steve Foster.

The collection of flowering plants and ferns, collected over the last half century, comprises of almost 1,000 plants mounted on good quality paper.

They are housed in folders and boxes and arranged numerically according to the species.

Most of the British specimens have been collected from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, however the collection also contains specimens from 29 other countries.

Herbariums such as these are now becoming very rare and valuable especially since the development of Genetics and DNA testing, where older specimens can be compared with new plants to inform us about the effect of global warming and the use of pesticides and fertilisers.

The Lincolnshire Naturalist Union also attended the event and showcased the work they carry out in Lincolnshire recording wildlife records.