NOT FAR FROM WHERE MEXICAN WOLVES LOUNGE among the boulders and shrubs in their enclosure at the El Paso Zoo, young children lean over a table, carefully examining plant specimens and dried seeds. They take turns using plastic magnifying glasses and trace their fingers over the globe mallow and desert unicorn n plants, pondering the shapes and functions of their stems and leaves. Even amid the excitement of the surroundings, the novel sight of plants that have been dried, d, pressed, and preserved on sheets of paper captures the kids’ curiosity. That’s the goal of the versity of Texas at El Paso’s Biodiversity Collections, Uniwhich organized the display of its herbarium specimens for Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta, an annual event held in September.
“Plants can sink into the background because e we see them every single day—we just walk right past them,” says Vicky Zhuang, manager of the Biodiversity Collections. “But they’re really cool, and the more people learn about plants, the more they start noticing them.”
Educational outreach is a key function of the UTEP Herbarium, which is one of 34 active herbaria across Texas, mostly located at publicly accessible universities and botanical gardens. As caretakers of preserved plants collected by generations of naturalists, the herbaria chronicle the botanical history of Texas and beyond. The institutions harbor millions of specimens that, sheet by sheet, provide a tangible
