Take a peek into our collections! – The Herbarium

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The Herbarium is a collection of dried plants, algae, moss and lichen specimens which were collected throughout the Victorian era. These specimens were collected as educational tools on the natural world and how it was changing.

Our Herbarium collection dates back to early 1800’s, showcasing plants of all families. Some of which are now endangered or at risk due to changing environments and some tell stories of humans and their activities.

Here is Purple Lavar, an edible seaweed which is eaten across the world. Known in Wales where it is used to make Lavar bread doused in vinegar, eaten cold in Cornwall or enjoyed as Nori in Japanese cuisine.

There is another story to this seaweed of a young woman from Leigh called Dr Kathleen Drew Baker. Born in 1901, Kathleen studied this seaweed in the University of Manchester, making crucial discoveries to the life-cycle of Porphyra Umbilicalis. Her discoveries made a lasting development to the production of Nori in Japan, previously known as ‘Gamblers Grass’ due to the unpredictable nature of harvesting the seaweed crop. Dr. Bakers work enabled cultivators to better understand the life-cycle of the seaweed and create suitable conditions for harvesting which led to the scale of it’s consumption today. The impact of her work is demonstrated by an annual Japanese festival in which she is celebrated as ‘the Mother of the Sea’.