About us

BotanicalJourneys was founded by Rutger Barendse from Belgium and Jeroen Willemsen from the Netherlands, driven by their shared passion for discovering and photographing as many wild flower species as possible in specific areas. Over the years, Rutger and Jeroen have been planning trips together once or twice annually, carefully documenting all the plants they encounter. They also sometimes incorporate data from reports by fellow botanists. The information they collect is often registered on www.observado.org, allowing them to share knowledge about wild plant species with others.

Jeroen resides south of Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Besides his interest in searching for wild flowers, he is involved in researching mammals, particularly bats and mice. As a member of the Field Study Group of the Dutch Mammal Society, he actively contributes to studying these animals. Additionally, he has studied marine flora and fauna at the Dutch Stichting Anemoon. He works for a water company, but his educational background includes a Master's degree in Cultural Sciences, and he wrote his Bachelor's thesis on a comparison of nineteenth-century civil society in the Netherlands and Belgium, with a focus on the foundation of national botanical associations.

Rutger was born in the Netherlands and currently resides in the Province of Limburg, Belgium, with his wife and four sons. He runs his own small company specializing in biodiversity research. As a volunteer administrator on waarnemingen.be and observado.org, he is responsible for verifying photographs and maintaining the species lists of European plants. He has also established a website dedicated to plants in the Belgian region 'Campine' and is CEO of the company ODI biodiversiteitsonderzoek.