Plant hunting in the S Sierra Madre Occidental (Zacatecas, Mexico) in pursuit of  big-cone pinyon, Pinus maximartenezii.

Hi,
my name is Steffi. I live in Fairbanks and work at the University of Alaska Museum as the curator of the Herbarium. As a botanist my career training has involved visiting museums worldwide to study herbarium specimens, but there was always room to enjoy other museums during these visits. Some spectacular exhibits included the taxidermy collection of Vietnamese mammals at the Hanoi Zoological Museum or the exceptional Glass flowers at Harvard University. Museum have captured my imagination on many levels, they inspire me, they allow me to pursue my detective skills into the history of particular plant discoveries, find a home for my plant hunting adventures all over the globe, and they give me an outlet to share my enthusiasm of plants and anything botanical with the public, students and other researchers. I hope you are as excited as I am to learn more about the different perspectives we all have about museums.

3 Thoughts to “I’m excited to hear your museum story”

  1. Becca Ray Turner

    Hi Steffi
    It sounds like a very exciting life traveling around the glob, seeing new sights, cultures and people. I wish i had a green thumb for plants and all that stuff, but any kind of plant ends up dying on me. I think they call it a black thumb. Oh well I guess I will have to be happy with just looking at the plants.

  2. Thanks Becca! Have you ever tried a spider plant or a wax plant, it seems you cannot kill those. I have a cutting of a way plant in a glass to root it and it is thriving even though some times the water in the glass totally tries off. If you are in Fairbanks I am happy to give you the cutting. It is a vine. It stays green all year, and if it is happy it makes little pink flowers. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/vines/hoya-wax-plant/growing-hoya-wax-vines.htm

  3. Amber Benson

    Hi Steffi. It’s really cool that you have travelled the world and have been to all the different museums. Your job sounds interesting!

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