Botanists have collected plants from British Columbia for more than two centuries. The Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) has been active in botany for more than a century, and our institution holds collections going back to those early days. Over the past four decades the RBCM has been at the forefront in the botanical exploration of British Columbia: the province with the richest flora in Canada.

More than 100,000 specimens were acquired, and formed the basis for the publication of our numerous handbooks. Over the past years botanical activities have included ethnobotanical studies of Dr Nancy Turner (Research Associate) joined recently by Richard Hebda.

In 1997 the Botany Group at the RBCM consists of two curators: Leon Pavlick and Richard Hebda and two collections managers: Joan Kerik and John Pinder-Moss. Research focused on grasses and grassland species (Pavlick), Quaternary fossil plants and the Rose Family (Hebda). The future of B.C.'s flora and ecosystems in the face of climate change is another topic of concern (Hebda).

The collection receives wide use through loans solicited from institutions around the world, and many visits to the herbarium. Our collections managers, co-op students and many volunteers have been busy putting collections data on computer to make them even more widely available.

In addition to field collections by curators, the province-wide field work of the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre adds new material from listed species to the herbarium.

Botany personnel participate widely in public education through writing popular publications, giving public lectures, acting as special advisors on ecotours, and speaking at special events such as native plant days.

Scholarly studies and public programs are complemented by the use of one of the oldest Native Plant Gardens in western Canada (begun in 1967) on the RBCM grounds. Approximately 300 native species grow in the heart of the city and provide a controlled wild environment for human visitors and wildlife alike.