The word “vault” usually conjures thoughts of dark, secure places where hugely valuable or dangerous things are kept. Another place with a vault is the National Herbarium of New South Wales at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. A plant vault. Held in this vault is a collection of more than 1.2 million plant specimens, each a holder of unique stories of discovery, evolution and human scientific advances. It’s a trove of botanical riches and is valued at more than $100 million. Before my visit, my idea of what a herbarium is was rather romantic. I thought of Emily Dickinson’s collection of plant specimens and the prodigious poetic output it inspired. I thought of sending home-pressed violets in birthday cards as a child. The reality of a scientific herbarium is something different entirely.

Around 250 years ago, James Cook sailed to Australia on the Endeavour. On board were Banks, a wealthy scientist, and Dr Daniel Solander, a Swedish botanist. Banks and Solander collected more than 1000 plant specimens from the east coast of Australia, all completely new to science. Their haul included wattles, eucalyptus, and banksia (named after Sir Joseph Banks). Eight hundred and five of the specimens they collected are now housed in the National Herbarium of NSW. These specimens, while having vast historical value and holding many rich stories, are still used in a practical sense today to help classify, understand, and track changes in Australia’s native plant communities. Dale Dixon, a botanist and the manager of the Herbarium collection, tells of his first interaction with a Banks and Solander specimen. “I was a university student and was entering data from a big pile of specimens into the computer. I picked one up and started reading “Banks & Solander, 1770”. I stopped and there were tears pouring out of my eyes. I couldn’t believe I was handling one of Australia’s most important plant specimens. We still use them today.” The management, curation and protection of more than a million plant specimens is no small feat. Dixon leads a team of curators, botanical illustrators and a group of keen volunteers, some of whom have been working at the herbarium for more than 30 years. The volunteers sew the pressed plant specimens onto acid-free paper with dental floss (apparently dental floss has longevity like nothing else, lasting at least 100 years). This is a never-ending task, with Dixon estimating there are hundreds of thousands of plant specimens waiting to be mounted.