Being distracted by plants and trees, even when driving, is an identifying feature of a botanist, according to Eurobodalla's herbarium coordinator Jenny Liney OAM.
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Asked what botanists were looking for, she said "you're just looking".
If you're also distracted by plants, and would love to study them, would a $5000 scholarship help?
The Friends of Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden is encouraging students who have a link to the Eurobodalla Shire, and are commencing or continuing studies in botany, horticulture, wildlife conservation, natural sciences or the environment, to apply for the Jenny Liney Tertiary Scholarship.
The inaugural award recognises the 88-year-old volunteer's development and contribution to the Wallace Herbarium at the garden south of Batemans Bay.
The herbarium's dried plants "last forever" and are a primary source for scientific research.
Ms Liney said she loved the garden because of the unique collection of plants found only "within this circumscribed region".
READ MORE: $3 million Botanic Garden revamp begins
"We were the first botanic garden to establish a restricted variety of flora species," she said.
"We need people with the right qualifications to step up and take part in helping maintain the biodiversity and uniqueness of Australia flora."
She said there was not enough people contributing to electronic systems that helped identify specific species of plants.
Ms Liney's mother graduated with honours in botany at Sydney University in 1918 - one of the few female students at the time.
Ms Liney's best-loved plant is the "leptospermum rotundifolium" - a round-leaved tea tree, but she is also fond of grasses.
"People have specialties. I have an interest in grasses but not to the expense of an interest in something else," she said.
"A student may have a passion for grasses and direct their whole course of study in that way, or somebody else might have a passion about gum trees.
"There's a whole range of different environmental studies that people can apply to work in these areas. It's a very broad area, as long as it's related to plants and the environment."
Another interesting course of scientific study for Ms Liney was the naming of plants based on their relationships with other plants, and microscopic construction of the plant's genes.
Ms Liney was "absolutely chuffed" to be recognised in the naming of the scholarship.
She graduated from a postgraduate degree in botany at the University of New England in 1992 and has since volunteered at the herbarium a few days every week.
One of her favourite places is the Little Forest Plateau, near Pigeon House Mountain in the Morton National Park.
"One of the nicest places to go through spring and summer is the Little Forest Plateau, which is a heath land," she said.
"Heathlands on a well-drained sandstone plateau are very rare within our collecting region."
Applications should be submitted to the Friends of Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden secretary by September 30.
To download the application form and more information, go to the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden website.