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<span style="margin:0px" class="ContentPasted0">Hello natural history collections community,</span></p>
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<span style="margin:0px" class="ContentPasted0"> </span></p>
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<span style="margin:0px" class="ContentPasted0">My name is Ghulwinder Kaur and I am a student in the Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management program at Fleming College, Peterborough, Canada. Currently, I am doing my 4-month internship at Royal Botanical
Gardens, Ontario. My internship includes a research project for which I have selected to report on potential methods for displaying a full-size specimen of Giant Hogweed (<i class="ContentPasted0">Heracleum mantegazzianum</i>), a plant whose sap contains
toxins that can cause severe dermatitis. The intention is to give visitors a safe, up-close experience of the real plant so they will be able to recognize it and differentiate it from similar-looking plants. This could potentially be built as a travelling
exhibit.</span></p>
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<span style="margin:0px" class="ContentPasted0">A few years ago, RBG’s herbarium staff prepared a Giant Hogweed specimen using traditional methods of pressing and mounting, slightly modified to scale up for a 6-foot-tall, toxic plant. During the pressing process,
it was contaminated with mold growth. Part of the issue was that the thick (but hollow) stem took a very long time to dry. The foliage and flowers dried more quicky; however, they were not separated from the stalk. Another part of the problem was that the
plant was dried in a shed, since the giant press (made with shipping pallets) did not fit in the herbarium workroom, and a few hot and rainy days created humid conditions in the shed. Diluted isopropyl alcohol was used to clean the mold off the pressed plant,
but the resulting specimen was mold-stained and brittle.</span></p>
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<span style="margin:0px" class="ContentPasted0">Does anyone have experience preserving and displaying plants with similar features? In addition to pressing, I would like to know if there are other ways to create a full-size display specimen. I would be grateful
for advice.</span></p>
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<span style="margin:0px" class="ContentPasted0">Sincerely,</span></p>
<span class="x_elementToProof" style="font-size:12pt;margin:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="font-size:11pt;margin:0px" class="ContentPasted0">Ghulwinder Kaur</span></span><br>
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