Samantha is a practice-based, interdisciplinary, researcher helping to combat "plant blindness" in relation to medicinal plants through engaging botany-based public activities and exhibitions using “art-science toolkits.” She cares about the natural environment and recognises the urgent need for hands-on preservation methods to address climate change. Samantha believes that without proactive measures, medicinal plants are at risk of extinction due to the ongoing climate crisis. Through her work, she aims to raise public awareness and foster appreciation for these plants, ensuring their survival for future generations.

Mindful Garden: The Speculative Herbarium

Plants are a rich source of medicinal compounds, both for the pharmaceutical industry and as traditional medicines. The climate crisis and overharvesting are having a devastating impact on medicinal plants, with many species facing extinction, posing a significant threat to global health.

The project ‘Mindful Garden’ seeks to raise awareness of "plant blindness"; a phenomenon where people overlook the importance of plants in the biosphere, and inspires action through an interdisciplinary practice-based approach. It has developed tool kit(s) that can be used as educational resources raising awareness of medicinal plant uses and climate change monitoring methods.

Despite this crisis and a long history of preserving plants in herbariums, medicinal plants are often underrepresented in public-facing educational institutions such as museums. ‘The Speculative Herbarium’ exhibition intertwines scientific practices used ‘behind the scenes’ in herbaria with visual art and poetry, offering an insight into the important work occurring in herbaria.

Through a curated collection of pressed, dried, and spirited specimens gathered from my garden on The Wirral, viewers are encouraged not only to recognise the urgent need for plant conservation but also to care towards medicinal plants found locally to preserve them for future generations.