Herbarium

The Master Gardeners are collecting and pressing specimens of native and naturalized plants growing in Brunswick County, which is located in the southeast corner of coastal North Carolina. It is in a Plant Hardiness Zone 8. Plants that thrive here must be tolerant of long periods of heat and humidity, and will experience only brief periods of freezing temperatures. Some of the plant communities that we will be collecting from include maritime forest, coastal dunes, marshes, longleaf pine savannahs, pocosins and mesic hardwood forest.

The herbarium collection is housed at the Brunswick County Cooperative Extension Office at the county complex in Bolivia. The specimens are laminated to 8 1/2" by 11" boards and filed by family in binders on bookshelves. They are easily stored and readily accessible. The Herbarium is still in a very formative stage with concerns about documenting it occupying our energies as much as doing the actual field work. It is hoped that many hundreds, if not thousands, of additional specimens will be added in the future.