botanist

In 1640, botanist John Parkinson wrote of "gourds or millions, or pompions, or whatsoever else you please to call them".

"As a plant recorder I find this service indispensable," explained botanist Heather Garrett.

A botanist from UC Riverside noticed the tree in the late 1990s.

“Lots of plants look alike and are called similar things, so the taxonomy and the nomenclature can be confusing. Unless you have a very well-trained botanist who knows what they’re looking for, you could be getting something else by the time it gets to an apothecary.”

Early on in the project she spoke to a forensic botanist about visible changes in plant life at burial sites and she uses this knowledge to “get a feel for where things were disturbed or otherwise slightly different”.