Meet the plant detective helping gardeners and fighting crime

The National Herbarium of NSW has more than 1m plant specimens, which Andrew Orme uses to help identify submitted samples. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Every morning a pile of envelopes full of promise and possibility lands on Andrew Orme’s desk.

In his case, promise and possibility means unidentified organic material waiting to be inspected, identified and preserved for the future.