For Jeanne Kunze, the world of plants is one where art and science meet.

Kunze, who has a degree in painting and illustration from the Massachusetts College of Art, recently retired from a career of teaching advanced placement art at Waltham High School from 1984 to 2000, and has devoted herself since then to botanical illustration.

“It’s combining my interest in art with gardening and plants,” said Kunze, who teachers in two botanical illustration certification programs.

Kunze teaches at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, where “Drawn to Botany,” an exhibit of her work, is on display.

It is the final exhibit in the botanic garden’s “Art in the Garden” series.

However, she said, her exhibit proposal was chosen by jury through a competitive process and not related to her teaching role.

“It’s quite an honor,” Kunze said of the selection.

In describing the nature of her work, she said, “This particular art, botanical illustration, is scientifically correct. It’s very precise. It’s not impressionistic.”

Kunze said she works in many artistic media, but said the work in the exhibit consists mainly of water colors.

That’s a joy and a challenge, she said. “It’s very laborious, layer on layer, to get the subtleties. A typical painting that I have done might require about 100 hours or so.”

For accuracy, she enlisted the help of a microscope. “I dissect the flowers before I paint them so I understand the structure,” Kunze said. “The real tiny flowers are interesting when you put them underneath the microscope. I didn’t know what was going on, and that is often overlooked for the big and splashy that hits you right between the eyes.”

And along the way, she said she is gaining a science background to add to her creative side.

Her accomplishments include awards from the American Begonia Society.

 Kunze is an illustrator for “The Begonian,” the publication of the American Begonia Society, “The Buxtonian,” the publication of the Buxton branch of the society’s New England branch, and for the “South West Region Newsletter,” publication of the Dallas, Texas branch of the society.

Her credentials include memberships in the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, American Society of Botanical Artists, Harvard University Arnold Arboretum and other horticultural organizations.

Kunze recently pursued her education in botanic illustration, undergoing training at the Harvard Herbaria with a concentration in begonias, researching that family of plants at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens' Begonia Species Collection in Texas.

Kunze enjoys drawing lichens and other native New England plants.

In a sense, she feels her work is also a small part of a long lineage, in which illustrators enabled scientists to study and describe discoveries they made in the natural world.

“Before photography, there was botanic illustration,” Kunze said. “That dates back to the ancient Greeks.”

She added, “In order to transmit information, somebody had to draw it.”

‘Drawn to Botany’ is on exhibit through Sept. 16 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. For more information, call 508-869-6111 ext. 110, or visit the Web at www.towerhillbg.org.