Jer-Ming Hu 胡哲明

Jer-Ming Hu 胡哲明 is Professor and Chair of the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary biology at National Taiwan University and curator of the herbarium at NTU. These selected ink pen drawings are taken from his personal botanical notes and they represent the typical botanical illustrations which are not copies of plants but a visual essence of them. In fact botanical illustrations were born for botanical identification, they have to be scientifically accurate, but essential, with the information needed. Usually monochrome outlines drawn in ink or pen are very common because they are very clear and efficient for identification. This is the reason why drawing will never be replaced by photography, which instead conveys too much necessary information and distracts the botanist purpose. These illustrations usually depict all of the different details, including life cycles and dissection.

胡哲明是國立臺灣大學生態學與演化生物學研究所教授兼所長、植物標本館館長。展出的墨筆繪圖選自他私人的植物學筆記，代表著典型的植物繪圖，它們不是植物的複製品，而是植物本質的視覺呈現。事實上植物繪圖是為了植物鑑定而生，必須具有科學準確性，提供不可或缺的必要資訊。最常見的是用墨水或鋼筆描繪的單色輪廓線，因為它們非常清晰、易於識別。這也是科學繪圖無法被照片取代的原因，照片往往含有太多資訊，會分散植物學家的注意力。這些繪圖通常會描繪所有不同的細節，包含生命週期與剖面。