Question

Largest herbarium in India is at
A. National Botanical Garden, Lucknow
B. Lloyd Botanical Garden, Darjeeling
C. Forest Research Institute, Dehradun
D. Indian Botanical Garden, Shibpur

Answer 1

Hint: Herbarium is a store house of collected plant specimens that are dried, pressed and preserved on sheets.

Complete Answer:
We will first discuss taxonomical aids, before we find the correct answer.

- There are various taxonomical aids which are important in studies of different species of plants, animals and other organisms that play important roles in agriculture, forestry, industry and knowing more about our bio- resources and its diversity.

- The collection of particular specimens of organisms is important and is the principal source of taxonomic studies. Systematics are also fundamental as it is used for the classification of the organism and the information collected is also stored along with the specimens. The various taxonomical aids are herbarium, botanical garden, museum, zoological parks, monograph, manuals, keys etc.

- Herbarium is the storehouse of the identified and classified plant specimens either dried, pressed and mounted on heavy card sheets are kept systematically with any system of classification.

- The largest herbarium in India is located at Indian Botanical Garden, Shibpur. Therefore, this is the correct option. In 1973, the herbarium was set up in Indian Botanical Garden. There are about 1700 specimens present in the herbarium of Indian Botanical Garden till date.

Thus, the correct option is D) Indian Botanical Garden, Shibpur.

Additional information: The world's largest herbarium is located at the Museum of Natural History in Paris and The Royal Botanic Garden, Kew in England.

Note: Herbarium sheets are labelled with a label which is posted on the lower right hand corner and have information about locality, habitat habit, date of collection, botanical and English name of the specimen with a serial number and name of collector and are arranged according to Bentham and Hooker's natural system of classification.