Another day, another early start for the Bush Blitz Crew, but this time with the Botany Team! No time for Monday-itis here, there’s plant sampling to do! We set out West of Camp to our sampling site, a 10km transect following a 4WD track. We stopped each time the vegetation and soil type changed to look for flowering plants. Part of the role of the Western Australian Herbarium is to document specimens of the plants that grow in Western Australia, and the distribution of these plants. Dr Shelley James, Rob Davis and Renee Gugiatti are all Botanists from the WA Herbarium. We worked together to scour the area for flowering plants each time we stopped. Once I got my ‘eye in’ and knew what to look for, suddenly the world of plants opened up before me!

The Herbarium staff have special permits that allow them to cut and take a small representative plant specimen sample from the bush. Flowers are an important physical characteristic to assist Botanists to identify plants, along with leaves, fruit and seeds. A branch of a plant that has all of these characteristics on it would be a good representation sample to register in the Herbarium. Once the sample 'branch' has been identified on the plant, standardised details of the plant are recorded, and a QR code is tagged to the specimen. The sample is then taken to the 'press' that is in the ute. An A3 sized piece of ply makes up the base, next is a cardboard layer, then a sheet of newspaper, then the sample, the piece of newspaper goes over the top, another layer of cardboard and finally the top layer of ply. This is then tied off with two slip knots to compress the sample. The plant stays in the press until it is completely dry, and the Herb Team will review the samples,, and mount them for the official collection when they get back to Perth. We spent six hours sampling and I walked 30, 000 steps! I have been so inspired by this experience that I will be investigating getting a collecting permit and introducing this technique at our school for our students to experience! Happy days!