This is a bit of a random, and admittedly snarky, question. Why do folks who are interested in plants in a hobby/amateur way often refer to themselves as “botanists”? This seems pretentious and egotistical. In many cases, they are not trained botanists. A birder would never call themself an “ornith…

From another thread: [image] What does it mean to be an expert? Bill Stewart (1923-1997) was one of the most prolific botanists in southwestern Ontario in the second half of the 20th Century. He was co-author of the Guide to the Flora of Elgin County and published dozens of botany articles in hi…

Recently I met another iNatter in real life, and I was talking rather animatedly about which wildflowers were currently blooming, and how much identifying of plants I do on iNat. They asked me “Are you a botanist?” to which I replied “No, I’ve just loved wildflowers my whole life.” I would love to …

Naturalist speaks to me of earlier times. And yet. Here we are on I naturalist.

When I refer to myself as a botanist in Czech, I always use “amatérský botanik”, an amateur botanist. Without this qualification, I would understand botanik to refer to professionals or at least people who studied botany in a university. This amateur botanist collocation appears to be pretty common …

From reading all the above, it seems there is great geographical variation in acceptability in calling yourself a botanist. In Britain you wouldn’t be considered pretentious or egotistical for saying you were a botanist or an ornithologist, provided that you actually are one. Maybe that is because t…

[image] Who is your favourite nature host, in a video format? i like joey santore, crime pays but botany doesn’t [image] Who is your favourite nature host, in a video format? Crime pays but Botany doesn’t is great Like Bill Stewart (who was mentioned above), Joey Santore is not a formall…

I see much of the reason being that the field has a very long tradition of being held together by people who contribute substantially to botany without being career botanists. Botany is a humblingly broad field with far too few practitioners for what it covers, and the field is so expansive relative…

As is the assistant state botanist @mdpurdy :slightly_smiling_face:

Who needs botany ? Who needs a herbarium ? Rather use the funding and the space for sport. https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/duke-herbarium-closure/48997

I feel naturalist is a term people don’t associate with any profession unlike a botanist, mycologist, etc. So I have ended adopting it over the last years to explain to others why someone, who doesn’t do it for work, would spend so much time and resources learning about living beings for… the sake o…

Why do folks interested in plants refer to themselves as "botanists"?

Nature Talk

AdamWargon May 31, 2026, 8:10pm 54

Like Bill Stewart (who was mentioned above), Joey Santore is not a formally trained botanist, but as far as I can tell, he’s the biggest field botany educator in the world, with over half a million YouTube subscribers. In Joey’s Instagram bio, the first word is “botanist”:

Topic		Replies	Views
What does it mean to be an expert? Nature Talk	124	9353	June 1, 2021
Poll: iNatters, are you formally trained, or is nature your passion? Vote now! General	63	2023	October 18, 2024
Synonyms for naturalist Nature Talk	35	6680	July 2, 2021
The Rise of Labeling Ourselves: Birders, Herpers, and Beyond Nature Talk	68	1351	March 19, 2025
"Trying to define the undefinable": is iNat too focused on species? General article	84	3208	August 31, 2023

Why do folks interested in plants refer to themselves as "botanists"?

Related topics