Note: the date has been moved to Thursday May 2 (originally scheduled April 18).

In this presentation, Linda will discuss plant collecting and pressing, including responsible and ethical collecting and cultural considerations. She will explain important techniques for pressing and preserving plants, and will provide an overview of how to do so for fun, sustainable crafts, and education.  While this is not a hands-on workshop, do come at 7pm to see different presses and plant specimens.  Linda will also cover how we can all help support scientists to carry out plant biodiversity research and conservation work.  Linda PJ Lipsen is the author of the recently published and acclaimed Pressed Plants: Making a Herbarium.

During this critical period of climate change and rapid loss of biodiversity, it is more important than ever that we document the wide range of plants on Earth. Linda PJ Lipsen has made a career of pressing plants for crafts and science and caring for herbarium collections, and in doing so, has experienced firsthand the power a specimen can have on our understanding of plant biodiversity.

Linda PJ Lipsen (Linda Jennings) has been the Collections Curator at the University of British Columbia Herbarium, Beaty Biodiversity Museum for the past 19 years. Plants have stories to tell, and Linda is passionate about uncovering and illuminating their story through exhibitions, on-line videos and images, collection tours and activities, including hands-on workshops. She delights in connecting people to the century-old collection she curates, and in sharing the history of botany and its female botanists, the collectors behind the specimens, and the use of collections in teaching and research.