Herbarium record: Dried and pressed specimen of a lady fern

A herbarium or herbarium record is a dried plant or part of a plant collected and preserved for scientific purposes. It is used for documentation and research purposes. Many botanical gardens have large herbaria, including Kew Gardens, which has up to 7 million records. The herbarium shown here of a lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina), a fern species widespread in Central Europe, originates from the Herbarium Project of the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

Herbarium record: Dried and pressed copy of Athyrium filix-femina, color photography, 2013, photographer: Neuchâtel herbarium; source: University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel Herbarium project, Wikimedia Commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Neuch%C3%A2tel_Herbarium_-_Athyrium_filix-femina_-_NEU000003080.tif,  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.