Herbarium Volunteer

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Do you love learning about plants, taxonomy and record keeping? This volunteer job at Mercer Botanic Gardens (MBG) will support MBG’s herbarium collections. Mercer is the recipient of a long-term loan from the Spring Branch Science Center of their Herbarium collection of 50,000 voucher specimens. Specimens will be reviewed and recorded with vital data and specimen labels. Training will be provided for application of BGBase - MBG’s inventory software.

Requirements

• Strong interest in plants/botany, self-taught or basic botany/natural science training through a citizen scientist program (TX Gulf Coast Gardener, TX Master Gardener, TX Master Naturalist)
• Enjoy research and review of botanical spelling
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office
• Must enjoy working in an office setting
• Option to work independently, in pairs, or in teams
• Attention to detail and organization

After training, the volunteer will be responsible for updating MBG’s plant herbarium specimen database, using BGBase software. This new collection will require research, new labels created for herbarium specimens and specimen restoration. Data input will include plant species, collector, date, and collection location information. This inventory is essential as the basis for the documentation and conservation of rare, native, and exotic plants housed at MBG and throughout the gulf coast area, and for MBG educational programs.

If interested, please complete a Mercer volunteer application which can be found at:

www.hcp4.net/Community/Parks/Mercer/Volunteering

You can also contact the Mercer Volunteer Coordinator at 713-274-4160 for more information.