|
CNPS Orange County Chapter eNews |
|
Help the UCI Herbarium When You Enter Plant Data from Home We interviewed Rebecca Crowe, Collections Manager at the UCI Arboretum and Herbarium, to learn about her work cataloguing the plants of Orange County and how you can help: What is the UCI Herbarium? The herbarium is a museum collection of dried and pressed plant specimens collected by botanists. The plant specimen serves as a record of an individual plant species growing at a specific place at a specific time. How are the plants collected? In the field, a piece of the plant is collected and dried in a plant press. For trees and shrubs, this is usually a small section of a branch. For tiny annual plants, we try to collect several entire plants, including the root. We take care to collect so that the population of plants is unharmed, and we make sure the specimen contains the essential parts we need to make an accurate identification. The dried plants are mounted on paper measuring 11 x 17 inches, along with information listing the species, location, and the date and time the plant was collected. These samples are stored in herbarium cabinets that are air-tight and sealed to protect the plant specimen from insect damage, mold, and dust. How large is the collection at the UCI Herbarium? The collection includes 30,000 vascular plant, 5,000 lichen, and 300 marine algae specimens in 47 cabinets which take up about 1,000 square feet. Is the data from the collection shared with botancial gardens and museums across California? Yes! All of the UCI Herbarium's collection data will be available and searchable on cch2.org. We are still in the process of copying over the data from specimen labels to our database and we welcome volunteers to help us with this effort. The best way to join us is to do so virtually! Go to Notes from Nature. To get started, you follow a visual tutorial that takes you step-by-step through the process. After going through the tutorial, you will be ready to transcribe an herbarium record. You will see the label and follow the instructions. What is the Capturing California Flowers project? Capturing California Flowers is a multi-year and multi-institute project that will image, digitize, georeference, and score the phenology (the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate, plant, and animal life) of the plant specimens. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo professor Jenn Yost and Project Manager Katie Pearson lead the project. The UCI Herbarium is one of 22 herbaria, museums, and botanical gardens throughout California that are currently working hard on this project. Ultimately, when we finish capturing images and other data from specimens, we will be able to use this data to better understand the phenology of our California native plants. We have an excellent web site that documents all of our project goals, protocols, and phenological research here. Does it take a long time to transcribe a record for the UCI Herbarium? No, the process goes fairly quickly. Each record requires three people to enter the data to make certain there are no mistakes. Why is this data entry important? The UCI Herbarium hopes to get all of the herbarium data entered, including capturing all of the images of plant specimens and whether the plants are flowering, fruiting, or leafy. This gives us an historical snapshot showing patterns of flowering and fruiting seen across California.
Shown above is a photo of the first accessioned specimen to the UCI Herbarium. This is a sample of Justicia california collected by ecologist Richard H. Whittaker in 1963 from the Santa Rosa Mountains of Riverside County. We encourage everyone who has a few extra moments at home to log into Notes from Nature and help the UCI Herbarium transcribe records of plants growing in Orange County. It's fun and will help document plant distribution and patterns statewide. You can help Capturing California Flowers! If you have any questions, contact Rebecca at 949-824-5833 or email her at rcrowe@uci.edu. |
|
Dream Your Garden by Rebecca Crowe One of my favorite pre-pandemic activities was to hike with friends in Orange County's open spaces and chat about plants, their ecology, and if they have a place in my future garden. I do not let the fact that I lack a garden (I live in an apartment at this point in my life) stop me from mentally earmarking assemblages of native plants for inclusion in my future garden. With so much beauty in our wild open spaces, it makes sense that we want to recreate it at home. The first grouping of plants that have a spot in my dream garden was inspired by a sun-dappled stretch of the Laurel Canyon trail in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. Growing just along the path and near a seasonal creek were California wild rose (Rosa californica), creeping snowberry (Symphoricarpos mollis), and California goldenrod (Solidago velutina subsp. californica). The California wild rose's dense tangle of bright green stems and branches provided a solid backdrop to the trio. Creeping snowberry made up the next layer with more delicate blue-green leaves arranged neatly on arching stems. Clumps of California goldenrod dotted the foreground. What I enjoy the most about this trio is that something is either in flower or fruit spring through fall: snowberry flowers first in mid-spring and is joined by the wild rose in early summer. Both produce showy fruit through the summer. California goldenrod sends up interesting shoots of yellow flowers in the late summer and fall. One day, I hope to tend a real garden of my own. My aim will be to create snapshots of these special wild places. Until that time, I invite you to dream your garden. California wild rose, Rosa californica (photo by R.E. Crowe)
Creeping snowberry, Symphoricarpos mollis (photo by R.E. Crowe)
California goldenrod, Solidago veluntina subsp. californica (photo copyright 2017 Hillary Mills) |
|
Check out our May/June 2020 Newsletter Online Our bi-monthly print newsletter is available online. Have you missed our bi-monthly print newsletter with poetry, news, and stories from our members? Click here to go directly to the newsletter online and explore all of the interesting content written and edited by Sarah Jayne, Dan Songster, and Ron Vanderhoff. Click here to read how California Native Plant Society Orange County chapter members answer this question: "How is your native garden helping you navigate this isolated and troubling time?"
(Photo by K. Ethington) |
|
Reaching a Goal of 2,500 Buckwheats in OC A Buckwheat in Every Garden Continues OCCNPS continues to offer free buckwheat plants to homeowners in Orange County despite the pandemic. Although the buckwheat distribution events were canceled, Roger's Gardens and Tree of Life Nursery are participating by offering a free starter 'Dana Point' buckwheat plant to visitors to their nurseries. Roger's Gardens is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. Tree of LIfe Nursery is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, and closed Sundays. Here's what recipients of free buckwheat plants had to say about how their buckwheat is growing: "The buckwheat plant is doing very well. It is over 15 inches high at this time and looks very healthy."--Albertus "The buckwheat in my garden is thriving."--Trina "I'm happy to report that the buckwheat I received at the Fullerton Arboretum is alive and well. It's about 2-3 times the size it was when I picked it up...It's in full sun, right in the middle of my butterfly garden."--Carla
|
|
Take Virtual Garden Tours on OCCNPS Web Site Did you know that OCCNPS has an all-new beautiful gardening page on its web site that features three inspiring native gardens? Click on this link to see local native gardens and read interesting content about gardening with native plants.
|
|
Chapter Meetings and Field Trips Canceled Due to Coronavirus
We miss you! We hope you are staying safe and staying close to nature. We are planning for when we can safely get together again to share our love of California native flora and fauna. In the meantime, continue your good work, and consider helping input data for the UCI Herbarium. |
Fun Things to Do During Uncertain Times
|
Photo by E. Wallace
|
|
||||
 |
 |
|
CNPS Statewide Website | Orange County CNPS Website     
|
