A remote and little known repository of Amazonian plant specimens is being digitized and shared with the world, in part through the efforts of an Occidental woman.

Kathleen HarrisonBotanical Dimensions, an Occidental-based non-profit, was created to do four things:  Collect, protect, propagate and understand biodiversity. Co-founder Kathleen Harrison's current focus is on the digitization and dissemination of the contents of an extensive, but obscure herbarium in Iquitos, Peru. It's a resource, she says that was largely forgotten for many years, which makes it all the ore important and valuable today.

As she has delved ever deeper into the practices of the indigenous people of central and South America, Harrison says she has begun to see a regional approach to herbal healing that is distinct from both western and oriental medicine.