An illustrated presentation about the flora (and a little about fauna and mushrooms) of northern BC including images of the landscapes, rare plants, common plants, a pseudoflower, a puzzling gap in the distribution of several species and what we are learning about the last ice age from plant DNA markers.
Credit: RBCM
Botany BTS Tour Livestream
Join one of our educators for an interactive livestream tour of the research botany collection, a collection with over 200,000 specimens strong.
Credit: RBCM
This Week in History - The Mystery of the Mountain Flower Mimic
Sometimes, listening to a parent can be the last thing you want to do. But for Ken Marr, Curator of Botany at the Royal BC Museum, a suggestion from his mother paved the way for a significant scientific breakthrough. Season 12 Episode 2, 2023
Credit: RBCM and CHEK-TV (2023)
Extreme Adaptations!
British Columbia is Canada’s most mountainous province. How do plants survive and thrive in extreme alpine environments?
Curator of botany Dr. Ken Marr works in remote, high altitude places documenting and learning about the plants that live there.
Join Dr. Marr for an online visit to some of those places and learn about the wide diversity of plant species in BC alpine habitats and how those plants adapt to the extreme conditions they call home.
This Week In History - Alpine Gap
Join curator of Botany Ken Marr and explore the vital work of collecting and cataloguing the many alpine plants of BC.
Season 11 Episode 19, Feb 2023
Credit: RBCM and CHEK-TV (2023)
This Week In History - Pressed Plants
Join collections manager Heidi Guest and learn how the museum collects and preserves plants from all over the province. Pick up a copy of our book Pressed Plants to get started on your own plant collecting journey.
Order a copy of Pressed Plants: https://publications.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/product/pressed-plants/
Season 11 Episode 18, Feb 2023
Credit: RBCM and CHEK-TV (2023)
Alpine Field Work - Moss Campion
Royal BC Museum curator of botany, Dr. Ken Marr, talks about botany fieldwork in alpine areas of British Columbia. Learn about moss campion a common alpine plant species.
This Week in History - Botany Collection
Explore the botany collection of the Royal BC Museum with curator of botany Ken Marr. With plant specimens dating to the 1800s, the collection is critical in understanding everything from climate change to invasive species.
Season 11 Episode 4, Nov 15, 2022
Credit: RBCM and CHEK-TV (2022)
Alpine Spiders!
Robb Bennett, a phenomenal researcher, educates us about how he documents the diversity of the spider population in BC (over 900 species!), and reveals some secrets about the process.
This Week In History - Season 10 Episode 3. Oct 26, 2021
Credit: RBCM and CHEK-TV
360 Mountain Stream
Have you ever visited BC's high alpine? Not many people have. Royal BC Museum botanists have collected plants on hundreds of mountains across this province. You can better imagine what that's like with this 360 video. Use the icon in the top left corner to control the view of the camera. Learning Program Developer Liz Crocker took the video in July 2018, about 40 kilometres south of Tumbler Ridge, BC, near Bone Mountain. Watch for her wave!
Credit: RBCM
Moss Campion
In the windswept climates of the arctic and alpine the conditions make it difficult for plants to grow. There is one plant adapted to these harsh environments which enables other alpine plants to take root. Ken Marr, Curator of Botany, explains how moss campion (which isn't actually a moss) supports other plant life in challenging climates and how specimens are carefully preserved at the museum.
Credit: RBCM
BioBlitz Discoveries
In 2017, eight Royal BC Museum scientists took part in a short, intensive biological survey of Kluane National Park to document existing species and hoping to make new discoveries. Erica Wheeler, former botany collections manager, describes what they unearthed during their short visit to the Yukon. From This Week in History Season 6 Episode 17, January 2018.
Credit: RBCM
Plant Dryer
When botanists are collecting specimens, those plants must be dried quickly to preserve them. Drying specimens in remote field locations, without a source of heat, used to be a huge challenge. But no more, thanks to an invention from one of the Royal BC Museum’s technicians, Colin Longpre. From This Week in History Season 5 Episode 22, January 2017.
Credit: RBCM
Botany at the Royal BC Museum
Curator of Botany Dr. Ken Marr and former botany collections manager Dr. Erica Wheeler describe the process of collecting, preserving and storing specimens for the botany collection at the Royal BC Museum.
Credit: RBCM
Dr. Ken Marr
Curator of Botany Dr. Ken Marr describes his inspiration and work as a botanist.
Credit: RBCM
Dr. Erica Wheeler
Former botany collections manager Dr. Erica Wheeler talks about what inspired her love of plants and what a botanist does.
Mary Gibson Henry
Former botany collections manager Dr. Erica Wheeler talks about Mary Gibson Henry and her contributions to BC botany. Parts of this video were shot during a 2014 research trip in northeastern BC.
Credit: RBCM
Learn more about botanist Mary Gibson Henry and her historic journey in 1931 to northeastern BC in the Pathway Journey to a Tropical Valley.
