When I walked into White Hall 101, I was greeted by a wide variety and amount of plant pressings spread across a table at the front of the room. As a plant lover, the sight of all the beautiful plants sent a shot of dopamine through my system. I was thrilled to attend an event dedicated talking about plants and utilizing them in a creative way.
The plant pressing event was hosted by BIOME, Union’s Biology Club, at 5 p.m. on Nov. 2, 2023. The event was advertised as an opportunity to make your own pressed plant greeting card and hear from Michael Schiebout, professor of biology, on the topic of plants.
Schiebout kicked the event off with a short lecture. He went around the room handing everyone a piece of paper with a pressed plant on it. He explained that we now all had a herbarium specimen in front of us.
“Does anyone know the difference between a herbaria and an arboretum?” Schiebout asked.
If someone had asked me that question more than two hours prior, I would not have known.
“An herbaria is a collection of dry plants on sheets cataloged usually in folders somewhere and an arboretum is living trees,” Schiebout said.
When I talked with Schiebout earlier that day, he told me about his involvement in the arboretum on campus. He explained that Mark Bolyard, university professor of biology and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, initiated the arboretum and when he himself came to Union 12 years ago; they started the arboretum collectively.
“In the last 12 years, we’ve had 80 trees that are on campus that are unique,” Schiebout said, “and part of what we were trying to do with the arboretum is bring in diversity to campus, specifically plants that you might not expect in West Tennessee so people can come and say, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a smoke tree and here’s what it looks like.’”
How often are you walking across campus and you find yourself stopping to appreciate a tree or plant? For me, it is a frequent occurrence. Many people appreciate these plants as they walk through campus and are not aware of who is responsible for bringing them to our campus. So next time you notice a beautiful tree on campus, see if it has a sign labeling it. If it does, then it is part of our arboretum.
In addition to the arboretum, there is also a collection of herbarium specimens on campus.
Schiebout took me on a tour of White Hall, showing me specifically the plant-related places the building contains. He showed me the greenhouse, the garden they are working on behind the building and the room that houses the collection of herbarium specimens.
When we first entered the room it did not look like anything special; it was just a small room with some cabinets. Then Schiebout opened the cabinets, revealing folders upon folders full of pressed plants. He pulled out different folders, showing me a wide variety of plants.
“You can pull out pretty much anything you want,” Schiebout said. “If you want to look at something in the Polisi family or the Grass family.”
The collection is made up of about 3,000 plants. Dr. Schiebout has contributed many specimens to the collection, and he told me that the collection is also contributed to by botany and plant taxonomy students.
Two members of BIOME, Hetti Peek and Cami Haas, both junior conservation biology majors, brought plants back from GO Trips they went on.
“At the time it was part of the class that I was in, Taxonomy of Vascular Plants, and I needed to get a bunch of plant specimens, just like the ones that he [Schiebout] showed us,” Haas said. “I was like, ‘Well, I’m here in Honduras, it’d be cool to bring some back’ so I was able to collect some there, and it was so cool because I was paying more attention to the plants after taking the class.”
Peek had a similar experience. She brought a plant pressing back from a GO Trip she went on in South Asia. She gifted the pressing to Schiebout, and he proudly showed it to everyone during his lecture, claiming it was one of his favorite plants a student had ever given him.
After Schiebout finished his lecture, he turned the floor over to Peek, who led the attendees in the craft. Upon receiving instruction, attendees were invited to come to the front of the room, grab a piece of paper, some glue and select which plant pressings they wanted to paste on their greeting card.
Everyone flocked to the front of the room, admiring and carefully selecting their plants. The room was soon in a steady workflow of arranging and pasting plants onto cards.
I asked some attendees what attracted them to the event. Grace Beem and Halle Webb are both junior chemistry majors. Beem, like me, is a plant lover, so when she saw the event advertised, she jumped at the idea of a fun plant-related event. Webb tagged along because Beem recently converted her into a plant lover herself.
For plant lovers who want to learn more about plants and get more involved with plant life on Union’s campus, becoming a botany major is an option.
Though it is small, there is a botany program at Union.
“We have two outstanding freshmen this year, and I think they’re going to help grow the program,” Schiebout said.
If you do not have an interest in studying botany, you can still take the time to appreciate plant life across our campus. Doing so is a way to admire and praise God for his creation.
