Heidi volunteers at the Hyde Herbarium, working with pressed plants and the plant database. She holds a PhD in archaeology, specializing in paleoethnobotany–the study of plant remains from archaeological digs. She spent many years at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, where she was also a science educator and creator of an ethnobotany garden and webpage.
“I love to organize things,” says Lennstrom, “so working with the seven cabinets of duplicate specimens at the Herbarium is perfect for me!”
Heidi carefully identifies which of the specimens are duplicates, confirms they have been entered into the Botanic Garden website and then determines which ones are kept and which ones need to be shared with other herbaria.
Although originally from Seattle, Heidi lived in Minneapolis and later, Honolulu for many years. She returned to Seattle in 2007 to be closer to family. She loves to travel with family, work with digital photography and cook.
When in college, Heidi always favored the classes where she got to be outdoors–archaeology field studies, geology of the Pacific Northwest and plant identification. Now that she is working in an Herbarium she admits that she doesn’t get outside into the Botanic Gardens nearly often enough.
Heidi loves the conifers of the Arboretum but it is perhaps the simple lily that is her favorite plant. “Its so elegant!”