INVERCLYDE Libraries have been given a grant of £2,500 to create a 'contemporary herbarium' inspired by artefacts held at the Watt Institution. 

A new council report has revealed that the local library service have been awarded a Green Libraries Scotland Grant to take the project forward.

The herbarium will be accompanied by a programme of creative activities to engage audiences in Inverclyde’s biodiversity.

A herbarium is a catalogued collection of preserved plant specimens  - essentially a plant ‘dictionary’.

The council report adds: "This project will engage audiences with the Watt’s historic herbaria collection (currently the subject of a digital engagement project funded by Museums Galleries Scotland), before collecting and cataloguing contemporary specimens from the Drying Green community garden at Greenock South West that will contributing to the overarching narrative of changing biodiversity in Inverclyde."