Botanical Interests :3

Heya :3

Earlier this year, at university, we had a guest lecture about Forensic Botany. It was really interesting, talking about how general observations of plant matter can be useful forensically, as well as how chemical analysis of plant matter can be used. The range of crimes that it is applicable too was also a topic of interest, from the obvious crimes of smuggling drugs or transporting banned species of plant (like invasive species that could be dangerous to the local ecosystems), to how it can be applicable to murder cases in ways you wouldn't immediately think of. For example, one of the case examples we were given in the lecture was the Soham murders in 2002; where two girls were murdered and their bodies were dumped in a ditch filled with nettle, and a forensic botanist had been able to look at the nettle that had been trodden on and subsequently regrown in order to make an estimate at how long had passed since the bodies were dumped there (roughly two weeks), and the direction the killer came from. Using that information, they were able to find the killer and later prosecute (this is a simplified story of events, but to avoid making it too complicated I'm avoiding going into too much detail). 

But alas, that was what has ignited my interest in botany, and since then I have been reading books and studies around botany and am even planning my third year project around it! And I've been growing plants, and helping out at my local allotment (which I talked about in my previous blog post!) in order to try and gain some context to help put what I've been reading into focus. 

Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings!

Cleo :3