Collections Insight: Polar specimen gives staff the shivers
14 December 2025
This specimen from the herbarium at The Box certainly gave some of the Collections Team the shivers when they came across it recently while they were carrying out an inventory. It’s Cerastium alpinum, more commonly known as Alpine mouse ear or Alpine chickweed, and although it might look pretty humble, it has connections to some historic events and people - and a sad and somewhat gruesome tale of failed survival.
The herbarium
The herbarium at The Box contains around 10,000 individual sheets of pressed plants. Many significant collectors are represented here, including Sir John St Aubyn, TB Flower and IWN Keys. Particularly strong collections include local seaweeds and ferns. The majority of specimens were collected in the mid to late 19th century, with the earliest collections originating in Cornwall in 1780.
The herbarium is particularly valuable to scientists as a historic record of local flora, showing changes in distribution and form over the past 150 years, often as a result of climate change. In addition, access is increasingly requested by artists and students across diverse disciplines.
Cerastium alpinum
This single specimen of Cerastium alpinum was noted on a recent inventory of the herbarium. Cerastium alpinum is a matt forming perennial plant commonly known as alpine mouse ear, or alpine chickweed. It is native to Greenland, Canada and northern Europe and has dainty white flowers.
Sir John Franklin
This Cerastium alpinum is particularly significant as it’s label associates it with Franklin’s Polar Expedition. Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) was a British Royal Navy Officer and experienced Arctic explorer. He first travelled to Svalbard, Norway in 1818 and would lead his first expedition a year later to chart the north coast of Canada from the mouth of the Coppermine river. Conditions were treacherous and 11 out of the 20 men were lost to starvation and exhaustion. Franklin himself survived a fall into the Hayes River where he was washed 90 metres downstream. The remaining men survived by eating lichen and their leather boots.
The Mackenzie River Expedition in 1825 became his third Arctic expedition. This time he was better prepared and he became the second European to erect a flag at the mouth of the Mackenzie, later playing ice hockey on the Great Bear Lake.
It was his final expedition in 1845 for which he is most remembered. With less than 500km of Arctic coastline left unexplored, the British decided to equip a mission to complete the charting. Led by Franklin who was now 59 years old, two ships set off on what became known as 'Franklin’s lost expedition'. Provisions onboard included a library of over 1,000 books and canned food that should have lasted three years. However, due to the rushed work of the provisioner who was appointed last minute at a cut rate, toxic levels of lead from the solder on the tins leached into the food.
In September 1847, both ships became stuck in the ice off King William Island. With no word from the expedition, Franklin’s wife urged the admiralty to send a rescue party, but as the ship was provisioned for three years, they delayed the search. It wasn’t until 1854 that the true fate of the expedition became known. Franklin and his crew had left the ice-bound ships on foot to try to find safety. All subsequently perished from starvation and hypothermia, or from factors such as scurvy and lead poisoning. Cut marks found on their bones showed that they resorted to cannibalism as they tried to survive. Although it ended in tragedy, Franklin’s career as an arctic explorer contributed greatly to charting Northern Canada.
Dr Joseph Hooker
In addition, the label on our specimen tells us that it was 'given by Dr Hooker (see image above). This is most likely that the label refers to his son Dr Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) who was a botanist and succeeded his father as director at Kew Botanic Gardens. Dr Hooker was a close friend of Charles Darwin and was himself a polar explorer. He joined Captain James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition to the South Magnetic Pole in 1839 on the HMS Erebus; the same ship that would be captained by Sir John Franklin and become ice-bound on the ill-fated 'Franklin’s lost expedition' of 1845.
Next steps
Unfortunately, the label gives no further clarification about where and on which of Franklin’s expeditions this single specimen of Cerastium alpinum was collected, or when it was given by Hooker. However, its association with these two people and significant historic events makes it very special. Our inventory continues!
Many thanks to Sarah Marden, natural history curator