#let me live my life as a parasitic plant obsessed without assuming I'm going to make a tonic out of the stuff in my back yard

[dismalrain]

Herbalism and Botany aren't the same

Vent

(also no hate for herbalist people, it's not at all my thing and this is a pet peeve of mine, not a personal issue with herbalists)

Background: I got my Bachelor's degree in botany. I was going to go into field botany studying parasitic and carnivorous plants before my illness got too severe to be a field worker and I pivoted to botanical illustrations as my way of honoring my passion for plants.

Vent: Someone I work with assumed I would love herbalism because 'Oh you're a botanist, you love plants, right?' to which I clarified, that I don't care about herbalism whatsoever. They were so flabbergasted that I, as a plant person, don't like herbalism, because herbalism is plants.

I tried to explain that botany is drastically different from herbalism. That botany is the scientific study of plants, not plant medicine at all. I got my degree and have a passion for plant functions, their evolution, and the way they survive, adapt, tolerate, and protect themselves on microscopic levels. And by plant function, I mean preventing water loss in hot environments, anchoring systems, and how they transport different things, not the possible functions they have for medical or health reasons. I don't have any interest in the medicinal properties of plants, that's herbalism, not botany. Herbalism might be called botanical medicine, but you don't go to school for botany for that, they're two separate things.

TLDR: Stop assuming that because someone likes a specific vein of plant stuff, they automatically love everything plant-related ever. Botanist does not equal herbalist and trust me, as a botanist, arguing with me won't convince me that I love herbalism because I worship plants as a botanist. Brain surgeons and pediatrists are both doctors, doesn't mean they love each other jobs.