Promoting careers in plant science

Promoting interest in studying plants and pursuing careers in botany has always been part of my job.  The Phactor's basic premise is that everyone wants to be a botanist, but some people just take longer to figure that out than others.  At any rate any help is much appreciated, so this assistance is appreciated, even if they say that a botanist's job is to identify a&nd name plants and fungi, a view of botany over a century old. They also say, "it’s fun to discover the active, useful, beautiful, eco-friendly, and even bizarre things plants can do." Now what do they mean, bizarre? Plants do all the same things as other living organisms, so why when plants do them are they bizarre? Well, only because people never thought plants did anything! For the Phactor identification and taxonomy is part of the job, but at the same time we're plant biologists, ecologists, conservationist, and so on.  Why just today a colleague left a specimen in my mailbox, flattened into a folded sheet of paper, and asking, "Can you identify this?"  Without any delay it was answered, "Yes", and put back in his mailbox.  Once he thought of the correct question he came by and asked, "What is it's name?".  You can also read about botanical careers here.