Urszula Zajączkowska was among the winners of this year's Herbapol Esencja Natury 2021 award. The winner received the award in the "Nature in Art" category.

Urszula Zajączkowska, PhD, is a member of the Scientific Council of the PAS Botanical Garden, and works as an assistant professor at the Independent Department of Forest Botany of the Faculty of Forestry of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. As a botanist, she studies the anatomy, biomechanics, aerodynamics and movements of plants.

She is also a poet. She made her debut in 2014 with a volume of Atoms, which received a nomination for the 2015 Wroclaw Silesius Poetry Prize in the category of debut of the year, and an honorable mention of the 11th National Literary Competition "Golden Mean of Poetry" 2015 for the best debut poetry volume of 2014. In 2017, she was awarded the Koscielski Foundation Prize for the volume of minimum, for which she was also nominated for the 2018 Wroclaw Poetry Prize "Silesius" in the book of the year category and for the 2018 Orfeusz - K.I. Galczynski Poetry Prize. The volume "Piach" was nominated for the 2020 Wislawa Szymborska Prize and the 2021 Orefusze Prize.

In 2019, she published a book of essays Sticks, brambles (Marginesy Publishing House), in the same year awarded the Golden Rose by the Book Institute and the New Books and Science Festival magazine. She also received the 2020 Gdynia Literary Award in the essay category for the book, as well as nominations: for the Polityka Passports and the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Award.

The Herbapol Essence of Nature 2021 award also honored Dr. Katarzyna Simonienko, a psychiatrist, promoter of medical knowledge in the field of forest therapy; the Foundation three four! whose mission is to prevent nature deficit syndrome and remove its negative effects; Dr. Artur Zagajewski, an ornamental plant enthusiast who shares his knowledge in social media; Karolina Ferenstein-Kraśko who promotes a healthy lifestyle surrounded by nature; traveler Mateusz Waligóra, Orina Krajewska, a promoter of integral medicine and holistic lifestyle.

Congratulations to all the winners!

inf. and photos. Herbapol