Collecting botanical specimens

Citation

Dold A, Phillipson P, Liesner R, Lowry P & White L (2000) Collecting botanical specimens. In: White L & Edwards A (eds.) Conservation research in the African rain forests: a technical handbook. New York, NY, USA: Wildlife Conservation Society, pp. 89-114. http://bioko.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/whiteedwards2000.pdf

Abstract
First paragraph: High quality plant specimens provide the foundation for any botanical inventory or ecological study. Unless you have a pressed, dried herbarium specimen (generally called a voucher) as proof that a species occurs at a particular locality and has been correctly identified, the validity of any inventory or plant food list for the animal you are studying holds little weight. There is a long tradition of botanical collecting in Africa, begun hundreds of years ago by early explorers. Plant collection is a science in itself, a building block for other studies, and a relaxing and stimulating pastime. In 1796 the great explorer and plant collector Mungo Park was stripped of most of his clothes and belongings by robbers whilst travelling in Nigeria.