Join editor Rachel Potter as she shares stories of botany and history from Montana's Pioneer Botanists, a book she co-edited with Peter Lesica for the Montana Native Plant Society. Montana is a large state with diverse vegetation from Great Plains prairie and deciduous forest in the east, to northern coniferous forest and alpine tundra in the west. Discovering the botanical secrets of this spectacular landscape began with indigenous peoples and continued through the 20th Century with early explorers, geographers and entrepreneurs followed by teachers, scientists and curious and dedicated lay persons. Montana’s Pioneer Botanists brings together more than thirty biographies of these diverse people and traces the growth of botanical knowledge in this wild and beautiful state. Potter formerly worked—and now plays in Glacier National Park—where the plants and landscape have captivated her for over four decades. This program is being offered as part of the Lewis and Clark Library’s Big Read program: https://www.lclibrary.org/306/The-Big-Read