Mason Heberling

The French naturalist Michele Adanson is said to have called the baobab as “the most useful tree.” This particular specimen pictured above was collected on June 27, 2001 by E. Mboya and others in Tanzania.  The baobab is an incredible important tree to the people and wildlife of Africa.  The tree can live up to a thousand years old!  Baobab produces a hard fruit with white pulp that has long been a traditional food by native Africans, as well as a source for water, medicine, and shelter. For these reasons, it is also known as “the tree of life.”
 
The species (Adansonia digitata) was named by Linnaeus in honor of Michele Adanson, who studied specimens of this species in the 1700s.  The second part of the scientific name ("digitata") refers to the 5 finger-like leaflets that make up the compound leaf. Interestingly, the Carnegie Museum herbarium includes 20 specimens collected by Adanson himself, dating back to 1753.

The baobab (Adansonia digitata) is prominently featured in the Hall of African Wildlife at the Carnegie Museum.  The species biological and cultural presence in some  part of Africa is unmistakable.

Below:  Another baobab specimen collected in 1973 that shows the large, white flowers, which are primarily pollinated by bats. 

It is marshmallow peeps and bunnies season! But what exactly is in a marshmallow?  Marshmallows were historically made using the plant from which it gets its name, marsh mallow (Althaea officinalis).  Marsh mallow is a plant species in the mallow family (Malvaceae) found in marshes and wet areas native to parts of Europe, northern Africa, and Asia. The use of this plant to make marshmallows dates back to over 4,000 years ago in ancient Egypt!  Marsh mallows were also valued for medicinal properties. Marsh mallow roots were boiled with honey to make marshmallows.  It is said that in ancient Egypt, the consumption of marshmallows was only for royalty and the gods. The process of making marshmallows have changed quite a bit through time, and no longer contain sap from marsh mallow plants. Today, marshmallows consist of gelatin (thickening agent), sugar (most often from corn syrup), water, and corn starch. 
 
This marsh mallow specimen in the museum’s collection was collected on August 12, 1850 from a salt marsh on the Isle of Wight, England.

 Still have any chocolate or roses from Valentine’s day last month?  The herbarium has both, but from nearly 200 years ago. 

Above: ​Specimen of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) from Jacob Wolle’s herbarium, collected in Jamaica around 1840.  Some of the herbarium’s oldest specimens come from Jamaica.  Why?  Jacob Wolle was a botanist and the grandfather of William Holland, one of the first directors of the Carnegie Museum (from 1901-1922). Holland was born in Jamaica, where his father was a Moravian missionary. The CM herbarium has 2,514 specimens from Wolle’s collection, dating as far back as 1819.

Below: Wild field rose (Rosa arvensis) collected in England in 1820.