• Question: being a scientist must be REALLY fun, I'm thinking of becoming a botanist when I'm older , as I love plants . any cool plants I can look out for in daily life? thank you.

    Asked by 288putk22 to Senga on 13 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Senga Robertson

      Senga Robertson answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Hi 288putk22

      I t really is sooo fun. I love my job. It’s awesome that you are considering becoming a botanist, they do amazing jobs. It’s not just about travelling the world to discover new species of plants, they also research the effects of pollution and climate change. All of these are really important – which I’m sure you know well.

      In the UK there are a lot of cool plants, one is Tormentil which has really cute yellow flowers and is related to the rose family. It can be boiled up and used as treatment for an upset stomach and even applied to your skin to treat sunburn although I have never tried because I don’t know how much to use and wouldn’t want to make myself ill – just like most treatments, if you use too much you could get sick. It’s found all over Europe including the UK, and it normally flowers between May and September though so we probably won’t see any until spring now. Its roots can also be used to make red dye. It’s a pretty useful plant! here is a link that tells you where they can be found and what they look like: http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/tormentil

      Thanks for such a great question! 🙂

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