In the Department of Nature and Local Lore at the State Museum of the State Cultural Centre of Turkmenistan, herbarium specimens of plants, collected by famous botanists collectors N. Androsov and E. Chernyakovskaya in the 1930-50s, are kept. In this collection, an herbarium leaf with a very interesting plant called guayule, which is native to North America, was found.

According to the data described in the inventory books of the Museum, this plant was collected by Nikolai Androsov in the Ashgabat Botanic Garden in 1939. How did this plant get to Turkmenistan? The question caught the interest of the Museum’s researchers.