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Female narrator: Along with water and air...
...plants are one of the most important aspects of life on earth...
...and at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre...
...in Ottawa it is their job to know everything they can about plants.
Gisèle Mitrow: You know what?
The average person sees hundreds of vascular plants every day...
...but don't even think about it but it’s my job to keep track of them.
Female narrator: Just like humans, plants have a vascular system.
That allows them to get nutrients and water through their system.
It includes plants like trees, grasses or weeds.
90 per cent of green vegetative plants are vascular plants.
Classifying all of these plants keeps Gisèle Mitrow...
...the herbarium Collections Manager, busy.
Gisèle Mitrow: An herbarium can be compared to a library.
It contains numerous information on these vascular plants...
...and in this herbarium we have over 1.5 million plants specimens...
...and we have all the plants here that occur across Canada.
It represents 20 percent of the species in the world.
These are all dried, pressed and mounted on light cardboard sheets...
...and then filed into our compactor system which is movable...
...and these plants are filed by families and geographically.
One of our major roles is to assist Canadian agriculture.
Female narrator: The plant collection helps enhance and protect the safety...
...of the Canadian food supply.
One of the biggest threats to Canadian agriculture has always been weeds...
...and with this collection scientists are able to easily find information on these weeds.
By doing this they can determine what bio control methods...
...can be used to eliminate the weeds which also reduces the use of herbicides in our environment.
Gisèle Mitrow: In the global economy we have plants crossing the border every day...
...and we are here to assist in identifying some of these potential weeds...
...that might enter at the border. We want to prevent these evasive, alien species...
...from getting into our crops and our environment and our fields.
Female narrator: The information here collected over 150 years ...
...is more important than ever and is used by an increasing number of clients...
...including ecologists, colleges and universities...
...economists and staff of government departments.
Every year hundreds of visitors view the collection, there are hundreds of requests for services...
...and the centre loans out thousands of specimens to plant researchers worldwide.
Gisèle Mitrow: I feel I am contributing to Canada by assisting research scientists...
...here at Agriculture Canada and as collection manager of the collection...
...and I feel I am making Canada a better place to live.
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