Finding Flowers

What did it take to prepare the newest Museum publication, Manitoba Flora? Floundering in bogs. Bushwhacking forests. Searching for rare plants in remnant prairies. Boat rides in seldom-visited waterways. Countless hours hunched over a microscope looking at decades-old plant specimens. Join the Manitoba Museum’s Botanist Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson as she recounts her adventures in the field and in the lab.

Diana’s love of spending time in nature led her to study biology at the University of Saskatchewan. After taking the vascular plant taxonomy class taught by her mentor, Dr. Vernon Harms, Curator of the W. P. Fraser Herbarium, she decided to pursue graduate studies. After obtaining her master’s and PhD degrees, teaching as a sessional lecturer, and working as a consultant, she moved to Winnipeg in 2003 to take up the position of Curator of Botany at the Manitoba Museum. The lack of an up-to-date flora for Manitoba prompted her to do a thorough and systematic review of the province’s herbarium specimens, and begin compiling information for a new one.