Herbarium | Transylvania school of botanic art & illustration

Mariella Baldwin & Mihaela Sava collecting specimen plants for our herbarium in early spring 2023.

Photo by Christian Doyle.

Copşa Mare Herbarium &

Illustrated Field Guide

For centuries, the farmed grassland and wood pastures above the village have provided grazing for cows, sheep, goats, horses and water buffalo. In the words of botanist John Akeroyd, the High Nature Value grassland of the Greater Târnava Valley is "a genetic treasure trove of fodder crops".

We are conscious of the fact that the grassland and wood pastures are unlikely to survive in their present state as the local economy moves away from subsistence peasant farming - slow, mixed, largely unmechanized, and without resort to pesticides and synthetic fertilizers - to what we may dare to hope could become an economically-viable version of what has been for hundreds of years a truly sustainable use of land, by which we mean farming that does not deplete the soil.

We are undoubtedly on the cusp of change, and it is for this reason that we embarked in 2023 upon a 5 year project to record all the flowering plants in the grassland here. These plants are not necessarily rare in themselves, but it is exceedingly rare to find so many species growing together in one place.

The project is led by the school's resident botanist, Mihaela Sava, who expects to record some 300 species in all, concentrated in an area of around 50 hectares. Each specimen plant is dried, tied and labelled, then deep frozen and stored in our herbarium. Each specimen is accompanied by a pen & wash illustration of the same, drawn by hand from the living plant, with the diagnostic parts of the plant depicted.

Our illustrated grassland herbarium is an important part of the school’s botanical library, an invaluable reference for students and tutors as they strive for accuracy in their work. It offers as well scientific evidence of the remarkable diversity of flora found in this centuries-old farmed landscape, evidence that will allow future generations of botanists to determine whether this genetic treasure-trove of fodder crops has been depleted – or even enriched.

We thank Dr. Juraj Paule, Curator, Vascular Plants Herbarium at Botanischer Garten Berlin for his support in digitising and presenting our herbarium on the JACQ system. Our herbarium is listed under TSBAI in Index Herbariorum.

In 2027/8, we shall publish up to 300 as an electronic field guide to the grassland flora.

Here is a taste of Transylvania Grassland.

Our Hand of Illustrators

Illustrating 300 living plants is no small undertaking and our team of illustrators is growing to meet the considerable task we have set ourselves. We are fortunate that so many outstanding botanical artists have chosen to accept our invitation to take up residency here for a week or more to illustrate the grassland flora. Thank you!

May 2023/2025

May 2025

June 2024

August-September 2025

Patricia Gherase

August 2025

Angie Girling

June 2023/2024