" Three years ago, a 90-year-old newspaper column spurred my botanical awakening. I would like to believe I was predisposed to plant-loving from a young age. After all, the topography of my childhood had included woodlands and scattered prairie potholes. As a young girl, I'd picked fistfuls of violets, chased 'helicopter seeds' down the street, jumped in leaf piles, and climbed trees. My family had taught me to identify a scant handful of species: white pine, cattail, dandelion, creeping charlie, silver maple, butterfly milkweed, wild rose. However, although I had run wild outdoors, I actually knew quite little about the land and her creatures...Then, in my twenties, I was fortunate to discover the work of B.O. Wolden, one of Iowa's most notable naturalists. His desire to know, to care for, and to tell stories about the natural world forever changed my perception of the Iowa landscape."