What a great day! I got to go to BRIT. I always love going there!
First, our mission was to make space on my counter at home. Pictured here, the specimens we were depositing at BRIT. This was about two years of collections of mostly plants and a few slime molds.
On Monday, Tiana Rehman, the Herbarium Collections Manager, will put the specimens in their freezers to kill any insects. The freezers are like a billions of degrees cold. Just kidding but the freezers are much colder than a home freezer., like several hundred degrees below zero. I do not remember the exact number. It feels so good to have some more counter space at home LOL.
Next stop was to see how BRIT photographs their collections. Pictured here is Manuela Dal Forno, Ph.D. Research Botanist, with volunteer Charles. Manuela is a lichenologist for BRIT! Charles was photographing Manuela’s collections from the Philippines.
The boxes labeled Martin House between them was part of her collection! I think she said she had collected a couple of thousands. Most had not been identified to species yet. That will come later.
Here is one of her lichen envelopes!
The lightbox setup!
To illustrate the setup, here is a ruler, a color card, and a card on cookie sheet where the lichen will lay.
Furthermore, every photo needs all of these parts on each specimen!
Next, Charles arranges a specimen in the light box!
Thus Charles does his magic to get the photo just right! It was very cool to see the process! Thank you Tiana, Manuela, and Charles!
So this is where all the specimens will be stored eventually!
After we left them, we wandered around for just a bit. In the halls on display, you can see various items. There is a library there, but it was closed so another time perhaps.
In another display, we saw this cactus specimen!
Finally, a view of the prairie behind the BRIT building!
After BRIT, we walked over to see Stickworks. Indeed, it was spectacular! So if you get a chance, stop in to both BRIT and the gardens!
Way to sneak in that solar power announcement!!!!
Very very cool. Maybe we need color cards too 🤔
I thought about the color cards. Maybe we do.
Very neat, especially since I have never been there. Thanks for the tour. I have a better appreciation for just a bit of what they do.
Whoopee for the solar. The stickworks are great.
Like our reflections in the glass – a bit ghostly!
Botany spirits 😂