#26 Murder in Bloom: Forensic Botany 101

Hello, and welcome back, folks, to another episode of STEM on the Streets! If you are new here, my name is Aiza, and this is my partner CAI (crime Ai), together, we stroll through the criminal-ridden streets of STEM!

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What if a leaf could tell a story? 

 (✿◡‿◡)CAI: But it can’t

Oh, shut up, CAI- if you listen close enough, you can hear the stories they hold.

 (✿◡‿◡)CAI: No, I don't think so, I don’t even think plants speak English.

We must listen to the language of science!

 (✿◡‿◡)CAI: Botanical sciences.

Yes. Botanical science!

Now, if you are still with me, let me explain what I mean. Plants really do tell stories, just not verbally. But the stories they tell aren’t with sound but their presence and what they leave behind. This is what we call forensic botany: the study of plants within crime. 

Forensic botany isn’t just identifying plants, however that is part of it, it is also using these plants to understand the environment, the time and trying to imagine what could have happened at the crime scene with the information gotten from the plants there. It could be pollen on clothing to seeds in the crooks of someone’s shoe, these plants leave crumbs and create more pieces to solving the larger puzzle of the crime.

How does it work? Well, plants have a language and a paintbrush to paint the picture for us- pollen, seed, the way a leaf browns under certain conditions can tell us so much more than we can imagine. Not too bad for something that is rooted in the ground, right?

Like I have said previously, any science can be a forensic science as long as the science is used in a way relevant to crime solving and law. So botany, the science itself, is a study of plants as in the physiology, genetics, ecology, distribution, classification and economic importance of plants and then when used in the context of crime solving under regulatiosn of law it becomes forensic botany.

The Earliest Mentions

Long before our fancy methods came to place, before the lab coats and yellow crime-scene tape, forensic botany was already building a name with in crime. Heard of Phaedo by Plato? Yeah well believe it or not there was mention of forensic botany. Let me tell you. In Plato’s Phaedo, we find Socrates calmly drinking a cup of poison called hemlock. Now hemlock is a plant which contains a neurotoxin called conium maculatam so as Socrates sipped the poison, the conium maculatam stole the feeling from his limbs yet still, socrates infamously continued to philosophize with his friends. Plato’s account of the incident is one of the earliest detailed documentations of poisoining and this shows that the Ancient Greeks had a knowledge and understanding of the plants’ deadly science. As a matter of fact, Socrates’ execution by poison was a death sentence which was state sanctioned making it one of the earliest and first legal use of poison. In a way, the Ancient Greeks set the foundation for forensic science, forensic toxicology and in a way forensic botany.

Wood, Ladders and Botanical Fingerprints

Now a quick jump through history to the 1930s when forensic botany had really come to its own- with a twist of woodgrain detective work. The 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping case was very famous and while investigating the kidnapping, police a homemade ladder at the crime scene. A wood technologist, Dr Arthur Koehler, examined its lumber and discovered a match with three rings on the latter board which lined up exactly with the rings on the floor board in Bruno Hauptmann’s attic, the man who was accused. It was the perfect match like ring-by-ring- a biological and botanical fingerprint leading to Hauptman’s attic. Dr Koehler was even admitted as an expert witness by the judge and the wood evidence became crucial to the trial

Later, in 1992, investigators in Arizona found a scraped Palo Verde tree by a murder victim. They found seed pods at the crime scene and then PCR-tested the DNA of seeds from the suspect’s truck only to find that it was a match. It was the first time plant DNA put a criminal in jail. Super awesome, right? 

 (✿◡‿◡)CAI: Yes, Aiza, and there is another one too: in the Casey Anthony case, a botanist was able to estimate how long the body had been in the wood by simply analyzing the local vegetation growth, and this challenged the prosecution’s timeline. 

That sounds to amazing and fascinating to be able to tell hwo long the boyd had been in the forest jsut by the way the plants reacted to it! In each case, plants have acted like quiet witnesses telling the story and painting pictures through biology and pattern matches.

Well, that is all for today's episode! Next episode we'll be diving further into forensic botany!

This is Aiza Jamil signing out!

I am a forensics sleuth, what's your mystery to solve?

Citings