At the back of each issue of Taxon, the journal of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, there’s a section called “Plant Systematics World” edited by Sandra Knapp and Jun Wen. In the October 2023 issue, there was an article by Finnish researchers (Lehtonen et al., 2023) telling of the celebrations around the 100th anniversary of the founding of the herbarium at the University of Turku (TUR). It enthusiastically describes the herbarium’s history and present-day activities through the lens of the events, exhibits, and online media developed for the occasion. These are great examples of herbarium outreach, something that’s on the minds of many in the herbarium world who are attempting to increase their institutions’ place in the public consciousness.
TUR became a physical reality in 1922, two years after the founding of the university. A little history is needed here. From the 13th century, Finland was part of Sweden until 1809 when it became part of Russia until declaring its independence in 1917 during the Russian revolution. In Helsinki, the nation’s capital, the official language at the time was Swedish, but at the new institution it was Finnish. Thus it was significant that one of the founding collections for the herbarium was that of Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884), who wrote a poem based on Finnish folklore and myths and also helped develop Finnish as a cohesive language, part of a national awakening. With a great interest in plants and language, he created Finnish botanical terminology, most of which is still in use. In addition, he published the first book in Finnish on the country’s flora. As part of the anniversary celebration, the 750 extant specimens from Lönnrot’s herbarium were digitized and made available online, and this was given media attention: one of the hallmarks of outreach.
Lönnrot is a great example of how herbarium history intertwines with culture and politics. Another case occurred during World War II when Finland staved off a Soviet attempt to invade the country and went on to annex the Karelia region from the Soviets. In an effort to make a case for East Karelia as botanically part of Finland not Russia, researchers from the University of Turku studied the region’s flora. One of the participants was Lauri Kari, a pioneer in color photography. Many of his slides were included in an online exhibit about Finnish botany during the war. The interest in this presentation, which had also been given media attention, was so great that the website crashed on the first day.
The article gives the sense that present-day curators of the collection’s heritage are very aware of it and want their fellow citizens to know about it. There were several physical as well as virtual anniversary events. The first was a BioBlitz on the university’s campus in May 2022. Next was an exhibit on Seili Island off the coast of Turku where the university has as biodiversity research unit that encourages ecotourism. In the distant past, the island served as a refuge for lepers and later as a mental hospital. Many of the old wooden buildings remain, and one was the site of a display on the herbarium’s activities.
Later the presentation was expanded and moved to Turku’s main library, with material from the herbarium collection. There were interactive displays including a puzzle on assembling a plant plastome genome and a balsa log which children could try to lift to show their strength. Needless to say botanical art was represented, including old botany charts and anatomical plant models. These were accompanied by examples of student herbaria. Until 1969, making an herbarium was a mandatory part of the Finnish school curriculum, so some visitors had memories of this activity and a number had even kept to their collections. Some younger visitors also have such memories because the requirement was reinstated in 2004, though now a school can decide whether to require a physical collection or an digital one. To me this says a lot about the place of plants in Finnish culture and what Finns value.
The library exhibit was accompanied by a series of eight lectures that were also available digitally. They dealt with the research activities of the university’s Biodiversity Unit that houses the herbarium. The most popular talk was given by Kati Pihlaja a researcher in the herbarium who spoke about the mistletoe Viscum album and its presence in Turku over recent years. Its spread is being tracked with the help of a community or citizen science project, yet another form of outreach. Another session dealt with a project to develop a Flora of Turku, and there was one on using herbarium specimens to assess endangered species. The program planners knew their audience and so included a presentation on indoor molds and wood-rooting fungi that are a special problem in a country with so many wooden structures.
I felt invigorated when I finished reading this short article. It was exciting to read about an herbarium that is focused on its history and its cultural significance as well as on botany. It is also one that is definitely looking to the future in terms of its research agenda as well as its use of social media and digitization of its collection. This outreach in many different directions seems to me exemplary, though I’m aware that it’s hardly unique. Herbaria worldwide are adopting such practices as they become increasingly aware of the important contributions they can make to the community at large and even to national identity. Examples of these initiatives will be the focus of the remaining posts in this series.
Reference
Lehtonen, S., Cárdenas, G. G., Huhtinen, S., Huttunen, S., Keskiniva, V., Kosonen, T., Kuusisto, I., Lampinen, J., Lempiäinen-Avci, M., Llerena, N., Luong, T. T., Marsh, T., Oksanen, H., Pihlaja, K., Puolasmaa, A., Riikonen, R., Toivonen, M., & Wahlsten, A. (2023). Herbarium TUR celebrates its 100 years. TAXON, 72(5), 1196–1198. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.13069
Herbarium World 
Let’s go to FINLAND where they understand priorities!
Thank you, as always, Maura.
Faith