The Herbarium stands apart as the number one most trusted source for herbal information and products in Western Massachusetts!
We are a family-run retail store featuring the highest quality herbal and nutritional supplements available. It’s our passion to help you pursue good health either as an alternative to or in partnership with modern medical health care. We carry New England’s largest selection of bulk herbs and spices as well as supplements that aid with everything from joint health to sleep to weight loss! Our high standards of quality have earned us a reputation for excellence in Western Massachusetts. We have thoroughly researched and tested the products that line our shop’s shelves and even travel to the manufacturers’ laboratories to inspect their facilities and processes. At The Herbarium we also formulate our own natural products ranging from medicinal teas to aromatherapy blends! Have questions? We serve as an information center for the community and are thrilled to help you make an educated decision about your health. Herbal medicine, vitamin supplements, incense – The Herbarium will never fit into just one category! Stop by the shop soon and see for yourself what our many herbal products can do for you.
Herbari They're also a great way to keep a record of plant diversity in a certain place at a point in time. Making herbari It just takes a bit of time. Here is how we make specimens at the University of Cambridge Herbari Before collecting any plants, check the legislation in your area to make sure that you have the right permissions and are not breaking any laws. When we collect plants in the field, with the intention of turning them into herbari We also write observations about the type of habitat in which the plant grew, and a short description of what the plant looks This collection information is what turns a pressed plant into a very useful scientific object. Plants need to be pressed and dried as fast as possible, otherwise they can rot and will turn brown very quickly. To do that, we use a plant press, newspaper or blotting paper, and corrugated cardboard. The plant samples are carefully placed between sheets of newspaper, then stacked on top of each other, with a piece of cardboard between each of them. The press is then tied with straps and placed in a dry warm place for a couple of weeks. We change the newspaper after 24 hours, and then as often as necessary, until the plants are fully dried. Once they arrive at the herbari We then attach the plant specimens on sheets of archival paper, using g We're careful to display the sample in a way that allows for all the important identification characters to be accessible. For example, the flowers, fruits and both sides of the leaves need to be visible. A label containing the name of the species and all the collection information is glued to the sheet. This way, the plant specimen and the relevant information will always remain together. The specimens are then laid away in the collections. They are organized by plant family, genus, world region and species. This way, we know where to look for a species when we get a request. Once dried and pressed, herbari They can be used for a wide variety of research projects, such as studying how plant groups evolved, doc