Apologia Botany recommends gluing leaves - do they really not turn brown?

[klmama]

We want to collect our leaves now so when we get to the leaves chapter we have some - they'll all be dead if we wait. The book recommends gluing them to paper. Won't they still turn brown? Do we need to put glue or something on the fronts of them, too? What has worked well for you?

[snickelfritz]

When I taught leaf collections, I had the kids dry them between paper and under a few books for several days. It preserves them flat and in pretty good color.

 

I've heard various things you can dip them in or cover them with that keeps them preserved, but pressing is all I had them do.

[VaKim]

We placed them between pieces of clear contact paper. Have also ironed them between two pieces of wax paper. Both ways worked well.

[TolleLegeAcademy]

We've used clear packing tape to press down the leaves onto the paper (without drying them first.....they were some that were already down, but still with great color) and that worked well.

[Tarheel Heather]

We placed them between pieces of clear contact paper. Have also ironed them between two pieces of wax paper. Both ways worked well.

 

We have done this. This year I'm gonna try to laminate a few and see how that works.

[TrixieB]

Dry them first, if you plan to put them in page protectors. We didn't dry our leaves and they ended up getting moldy inside the page protectors. Same thing happened with our dissected flowers. The dc were sad to have to throw away all their hard work.

[klmama]

Dry them first, if you plan to put them in page protectors. We didn't dry our leaves and they ended up getting moldy inside the page protectors. Same thing happened with our dissected flowers. The dc were sad to have to throw away all their hard work.

 

Thanks! We do want to do that, so it's good to know.

 

Thank you, everyone, for your responses!

[FloridaLisa]

And grow some healthy mold under those sheet protectors as well. :glare:

 

Lisa

[Alessandra]

Herbaria used diluted white glue to put plant specimens onto herbarium sheets (really big parts may be sewn down with tape). At home, I've glued leaves down -- they do not turn brown. But you do have to dry them thoroughly first -- plant presses are expensive, but you could put together something yourself with leaves between sheets of newspaper, then a layer of blotting paper, then corrugated cardboard, and some kind of wood frame with 2 luggage type straps to press it. Or some science catalogues sell small presses for kids. If you are just pressing single leaves, a phone book works fine -- just move them from page to page once in a while.

[VaKim]

Oh, I had forgotten. We actually did "press" ours first to dry them. We put them between newspapers and piled a bunch of encyclopedias on top for a few days. Then did what I said above. :) We did leaves and several wildflowers, and still have them in their notebooks they made. This has been several years ago. My youngest still likes to look through hers.