There is a limit of 25 for this trip. Please email Valerie (see below) if you are coming.
As Google says, “There are over 800,000 specimens in the Allan Herbarium with 3,000–5,000 being added annually. Two-thirds of the specimens are of indigenous plants with the remainder divided between naturalised, cultivated, and foreign specimens. It also has specialist collections of seed, fruit, wood, plant leaf cuticle, liquid–preserved specimens, and microscope slides. The oldest samples are the 91 duplicate specimens collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during Captain James Cook's first voyage to New Zealand, 1769–1770. The Allan Herbarium's main function is to collect and record the flora of New Zealand, and to make this information readily available to researchers, and regional and national authorities. The collections are used by systematists to classify and identify species accurately, by ecologists to determine historical distributions of species, by biosecurity managers to identify weeds, and by the general public (including botanical groups) for information on plants in New Zealand.”
Please meet at the carpark of the Alan Herbarium reception at 12.45 to be signed in for a two and a half hour tour of this wonderful facility. For those who wish to discuss and linger longer we can go on to the Mainstreet Café for a coffee.
To find the herbarium - come via the keyhole road (entrance opposite the Challenge petrol station on Gerald Street), drive past the Plant & Food Reception. The visitor carparks are outside the reception. Google map and map of landcare.