Grief! Really?!? Utrecht is one of the top five herbaria in Europe, and probably in the top ten globally. What are they planning to do with all the herbarium specimens? Auction? Bonfire? Hmmm . . . . took a look on the herbarium's own website, and it says nothing of any closure. Noting the date above (On 26th March 2008 ...), could this be someone's April Fool joke gone wrong?? Or could it even be a devious scam to harvest peoples' e-mail addresses? This needs more double-checking before signing any petition.
Well, here are some of the lists where it's been distributed: HERBARIUM (herbarium professionals) TAXACOM (taxonomists) Naturelist (eastern Ontario naturalists) AABGA (American Public Gardens Association) The posting to the last one was forwarded by: Drs. Hans Persoon Curator/Dept. Director University Botanic Gardens P.O. box 80162 NL-3508 TD Utrecht The Netherlands Faxnr. +31302535177 The web site with the petition is hosted by the Dutch Botanical Gardens Collection Foundation [DBGC], care-taker of the Dutch National Plants Collection [NPC]. The domain name that I linked to above was registered on April 3, 2008, by this person: Renske Ek I strongly suspect it is what it is.
We live pretty close to Utrecht, here in the Netherlands. We also don't know why this choice has been made. We hope to go there one more time before the closing date. If it will close, we hope the plants will go to other botanical nurseries, such as the TU Delft, which is under construction now to replant the garden!! John and Tacha South-Holland
Hello John and Tacha, There will be very little, if any, living plant material. Most of the specimens in an herbarium are pressed dry then mounted onto herbarium sheets (here's a page where you can learn more about herbaria).
That's an very peculiar way of putting it! If not to say, a abnormal sentence construction! Would an horse eat the dried plants in a herbarium?
Hello, We understand the word herbarium, but we thought that they were also closing more public areas. Kind Regards, John and Tacha
