What is an Herbarium?
An herbarium is a collection of herbal monographs that catalog your study of plants. Each plant has its own section and is called a monograph. In the past, herbariums included pressed and dried plant specimens to show as many of the plant parts as possible and in different stages of growth. This “proved” the plants’ identities. In our digital age, materia medica specimens primarily utilize images and drawings of the plants.
Materia medica is a Latin term loosely translated to mean “healing material.” It is a written record that includes a description, parts used, its medicinal properties, constituents and their actions, the best menstrua for preparations, where to find the plant in the wild or its needs in the garden, and information about the plant related to historical use. As a tool to document learning over time, a material medica also included information about personal use and experiences with the plants.
The process helps students of herbalism to focus their attention and learn about plants on a deep level, become intimately acquainted with them, and practice incorporating them into their lives. It also helps to identify gaps in knowledge about a plant. The wisdom must come with the experience that only you can grow in yourself as you harvest the herbs, make remedies, and share them with those in need.
To begin building your herbarium, start by creating a plant monograph.
Choose a single plant to focus on – a locally available plant that calls to you or one you’ve been studying. It could be a garden plant or one that grows wild. The important thing is that you have access to the plant in order to study and experience it over time.
Research, find, explore, and write up the plant monograph using the template below as a guide.
Include a pressed dried plant sample and/or photographs.
Monographs typically contain a variety of information, depending on what is meaningful to the person creating it. Below is a basic format to follow when writing up plant monographs. Try to include as much as possible as the goal is to create a complete record of a plant. This will happen over time as you add to and revise your monographs. Allow extra space to add to the monographs as you learn more about the plants.
Resources
It’s a good idea to start with an experienced herbalist for guidance, one who has many years of plant identification and medicinal uses under their belt. At the Cedar Mountain Herb School, I offer an Herbal Monthly Materia Medica subscription where we explore a new herb together each month. We cover just about everything I’ve learned about that plant in my almost 4 decades of studying and practicing herbalism. This isn’t just about the basics – it’s about the deeper “how” and “why,” and will help guide you in creating a more thorough materia medica for yourself.
Field guides also help with identification and to observe examples of how plant descriptions are written. Field guides usually include information about plant growth, leaves, flowers, fruit, seeds, bark, and roots.
Researching constituents is easy by accessing Dr. Dukes Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Database. Look up plants to see the constituents that have been identified, their biological activity and ethnobotanical uses.
Other resources are the late Michael Moore’s updated website: Southwest School for Botanical Medicine and Paul Bergner’s MedHerb
I encourage you to begin writing a monograph on each plant you want to learn about in detail to build your own personal herbarium that you can use and reference for the rest of your life and pass down to future generations!
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