Northwest Lichenologists

Curation Materials

The following are suggestions and personal preferences for materials for curating lichens. Many of these are excerpted from a discussion on the California Lichen Society list server, with permission of the authors.


Padding

It really is a shame that the Herbarium Supply Company has lost their supplier for cotton padding. The advantage to their cotton was that it was 'bleached' using hydrogen peroxide and not chlorine bleach. Of course, bleach causes a chemical reaction with some lichens (i.e. with gyrophoric acid), causing them to turn red (C+). This cotton provides a barrier between the packet paper and the specimen. Does anyone happen to have another supplier for this cotton?
Robin Schroeder, ASU Lichen Herbarium

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Some folks call these lichen blankies. I use it underneath specimens more often than on top. I am currently using Kendall Webril (R) Undercast Padding, Regular Finish, 4 in x 4 yd (10 cm x 3.6 m) Roll (nonsterile, plastic bag of 12 rolls, 100% cotton. Ref.: 3175). It is available from medical supply companies, though they may not want to sell you a small quantity. You may have more luck if you ask your local vet. Unfortunately it is UV+, but specimens are not attached to it, so no big problem. It is easier to find the commonly used synthetic replacement for this.
Bruce McCune

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While padding is great for many lichens, it should never be used with pin-lichens/fungi. The ascomata (the 'pins') interact with the padding like velcro. I have experienced countless specimens ruined by padding. Sometimes you can go searching through the pad in hope of finding a few broken apothecia remaining. But even that small hope works only if the collection is monotypic, otherwise you are mixing and matching apothecia with thalli. I imagine that some isidiate and sorediate lichens could be damaged as well.
Eric B. Peterson

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I found a source for cotton cast padding. It is very nice, and inexpensive. Look on shopmedvet.com for CCP4, $12.99 for a bag of 12 rolls, 4"X4yds. A seller of herbarium supplies assured me that the old stuff I used (Sof-Roll Cast padding), made of Rayon, is acid-free, thus herbarium quality. And he says that if the padding is 100% cotton, it is also acid-free.
Daphne Stone


Cards

We just use white blank index cards, instead of stiff cardboard.
Robin Schroeder, ASU Lichen Herbarium

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The Canadian Museum of Nature orders cardboards from a local printer. They cut it to size according to our specifications. The most important thing, however, is to be sure that the cardboard is NOT fluorescent in long-wave UV light. We always demand samples of the cardboard stock before approving the order for them to cut it. Many types of cardboard (especially index cards!) are UV++ blue-white, which interferes with checking the UV fluorescence of crustose lichens glued to the cardboards. It is a pain in the rear to have to screen out the cardboard fluorescence with "masks" or remove the lichen from the cardboards before examining the lichens with UV.
Ernie Brodo

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A while ago, I noted for CALS that 140# water color paper is a good, 100% cotton, acid free paper, very suitable for herbarium use. In 3x5 size, it is heavier and stiffer than index card stock, which is only 90# or 110# I just checked, again, my stock for fluorescence, and found it non fluorescent. I was tipped off to this by a curatorial assistant/illustrative artist at the California Academy of Sciences, when I was volunteering there.


The differences in the brands, according to the art teacher I pressed on the matter, is primarily 1) how it holds up to the scrubbing of the brushes when soggy, and 2) the users preference of the surface, and 3) import duties. It comes in cold pressed and hot pressed surfaces, the latter smooth, and is made in massive quantities. The Strathmore 140# cold press is very good, and is often available in large sheets, and is US made (less expensive). (It doesn't hold up very well to 'scrubbed puddle painting,' however.) I also use the same (and other companies') hot press, when I expect I have to sketch with ink, as the hot press, not well favored by water color artists, is harder, smoother, more level, and often is the preferred medium for india ink (and pencil) detailed sketches, and botanical illustrations.


Most "self service" copy shops have cutters available that can easily reduce two or three 16x24 or 24x36 sheets to many cards of your preferred size. I like 3x4, as it comes out fairily even. As I buy wire bound pads of the paper in 16x24 and 12x16 during "school sales" for my own use, sketching and watercoloring, I often just cut off some of that. But the big sheets are much less expensive, and often also on sale at the same time. And the "Pre-school Sales" are on now.
Mikki

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I'm happy with the card stock I chop down from large sheets from an art supply store (though I haven't checked the UV response).
Eric B. Peterson

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In the past I have often used scraps of mat board, obtained from a friend who was self-employed as an artist. This is mostly archival quality. Recently I purchased some archival card stock from The Archival Company (800 442 7576800 442 7576 FREE FREE) and am very happy with it. I bought two weights and use the lighter weight for things like bark fragments, and the heavier weight for collages of rock fragments. Both weights are Kensington 100% rag, museum quality buffered mounting board. It is UV- or UV+ very dark reddish. It comes in 32 x 40 inch sheets, 25 sheets per package. I had our university print shop cut these up into cards, about 120 cards per sheet. Of course they charge for this, but it wasn't much. The spec's are:

Heavier stock: 700-3245, 4-ply, soft white (2X as expensive as 2-ply)
Lighter stock: 700-3246, 2-ply, antique white

The cost for materials worked out to about 3.6 cents/card for the lighter stock and 7.2 cents/card for the heavier stock.

Bruce McCune


Packets

We use 100% cotton, archival quality, 24-32lbs paper for packet envelopes. You can usually find this in any office supply store.
Robin Schroeder
ASU Lichen Herbarium

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For packets I use 24 lb acid free paper. Our printing department buys this, then they do a letter fold on a machine, then we hand fold the sides, using a jig design that I borrowed from one at UBC Vancouver (see below). For labels I have used Boise Cascade 100% Cotton Laser Paper, white, 24 lb, acid free. Comes in nice boxes of 500 sheets. Southworth also makes 100% cotton papers.


Bruce McCune



Small Cardboard Boxes and 3-D Support

I'd like ideas on inexpensive boxes or materials for constructing 3-D support. A lot of my collections are calicioids and soil crusts... both easily crushed if simply glued to a flat card. For a while I had access to some wonderful cardboard jewel boxes, but the cost adds up quickly at US$0.25 -0.75 / specimen. I have also tried gluing styrofoam 'peanuts' to the corners of the card, but I worry about what chemicals might come out of them. Most recently I've tried 'popsicle sticks' from a craft store - with a strategically placed knick from some scissors they are easy to snap into a right-angle - two glued to opposite corners of a card form a decent box, if somewhat ugly.
Eric B. Peterson

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I construct a simple "box" for calicioids with a half or 2/3 of a standard cardboard piece. I simply score the edges with a scissor blade according to how deep I want the box. I then make a little cut on each of the four corners, bend up the scored edges, and tape the bend-up sides to make a box. It works very well and is pretty fast. And, the boxes are still UV negative!
Ernie Brodo


I suggest you use archival moisture activated linen tape to tape your box.
Micheline B.-Bouchard

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I use Ethafoam which is chemically stable. Using a sharp blade, I cut strips from a larger block to build a little wall glued with PVA to our UV negative card stock. The neat thing about it is I can sculpt this material in any shape. As per costs, I cannot really tell you since I am using leftovers from our move 8 years ago. We had then to pack all our natural history collections in a fashion that would able us to move and to properly stored indefinitely. So a lot of Ethafoam was purchased. It is a very versatile material!
Micheline B.-Bouchard

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I used to use Ward's Specimen Trays. They are great for soil crusts and calicioid lichens. According to Ward's website (wardsci.com), these are "Made of strong pasteboard, the trays are finished outside in black glazed paper and lined with white." They are open-topped shallow boxes. They all fit in a standard lichen packet. They are fairly warp resistant when using PVA (Elmers) glue, even in large amounts. Unfortunately they are UV+ blue white.

I use three sizes:
3 x 4 x 5/8 inch A bit smaller than a typical lichen packet.
2 x 3 x 5/8 inch The size I use the most.
2 x 1 x 5/8 inch Good for small stuff.

They are not cheap:  list price in 2005 was about 50 cents each for the larger sizes and 40 cents for the smaller two sizes. Used judiciously, they are a great solution. They come in boxes of 100.

NOTE: These tripled in price sometime between 2005 and 2010 and no longer seem economical enough to use.

Bruce McCune

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An economical and effective alternative for delicate lichens that  are less than 1 cm tall is tu glue specimens in 50 x 9 mm polystyrene petri dishes (illustrated below). These are available from big scientific supply companies such as VWR. Bought in packages of 500 they are about 25 cents each, as of 2010. I'm happy with them so far, and have started buying them instead of the Ward's specimen trays.
Bruce McCune



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