“It is mid July, 1961. The scene is a rolling subalpine meadow somewhere on the upper slopes of Battle Mountain in Wells Gray Provincial Park. The day is cold, raw, overcast, and threatening rain. Near the edge of the meadow two human forms, clad in heavy rain gear, can be seen moving slowly about on hands and knees. From time to time one of them pauses, removes a note book from a pocket, then quickly writes something down. Most of the time, however, their hands, when free, are waving around in the air, constantly swatting at the clouds of mosquitoes now gathered around them. Meet Teuvo Ahti and Leena Hämet-Ahti …on their honeymoon.

Although Teuvo and Leena are no strangers to western North America, home for them is actually Helsinki, Finland. Coming of age in Finland during World War II would not have been easy; perhaps it was this that instilled in both of them a love of wild green places far removed from the Sturm und Drang of human politics.

In following decades, one or both of them would return to the west many times. By their own reckoning, the Ahtis have assembled 10,500 plant specimens from western North America. These specimens are now housed in the Botanical Museum of the University of Helsinki (H) – with duplicates at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Canadian Museum of Nature (CANL). Taken together, their collections certainly represent the largest extra-North American collection of western plants ever assembled. The only rival collection would be that the Swedish botanist of Eric Hultén.”

Trevor Goward, Co-Curator of Lichens at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.