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Groups needed as Curatorial Volunteers at the Herbaria
One Saturday of each month is a Volunteer Day in the Herbaria. Each Volunteer Saturday begins at 10:00am and finishes by 4:00pm (participants need not stay the full time).
Your group can join us to learn about California flora, gain first-hand experience with herbarium techniques, provide much-needed assistance with the specimens, and socialize with fellow native plant enthusiasts. To be added to the Group Volunteer reminder list, please call Ana Penny at (510) 642-2465.
We also welcome individual volunteers who can come in on Volunteer Saturdays or during our regular hours (M-F 8am-5pm). We will try to match your unique interests, abilities and schedule to one of the numerous curatorial projects needing attention. For more information about individual volunteer opportunites, please call Andrew Doran at (510) 642-2465.
Volunteer Saturdays for 2008-2009 (2nd Saturday except as marked with asterisk*)
Sept. 13 |
Dec. 13 |
March 14 |
Oct. 11 |
Jan. 10 |
April 18* |
Nov. 15* |
Feb. 14 |
May 9 |
The University and Jepson Herbaria had their holiday party December 17 2008. Santa even put in an appearance, and we noticed his phenotype has converged with that of a certain bryologist who also happens to be the Director of the Herbaria. Happy Holidays to all, and best wishes for a fantastic New Year!
SO BE FREE 14 ----coming up March 24-27, 2009
The 2009 SO BE FREE will be held in the lower elevations of the central Sierra Nevada, near Oakhurst, California. The area offers montane coniferous forest, oak woodland with rocky outcrops, chaparral, and deep gorges cut into the granite by swiftly flowing waters. We will also visit a giant sequoia grove and a foothill woodland. Bryophyte diversity will span a range of life strategies, from California's spring ephemerals to the brown mosses of continuously wet sites. Beginning bryologists are welcome; we are planning some special activities for beginners, as well as serious field trips that will be exciting for the hard-core.
Founded in 1996, SO BE FREE is a series of West Coast forays focusing on bryophytes, but open to all botanical interests and levels of experience. This year's event is organized by Brent Mishler, Paul Wilson, and Jim Shevock. Registration due by December 15, 2008.
June 2008--Herbarium data used to project the effects of climate change.
David Ackerly, Curator of Ecology at UC/JEPS and Professor of Integrative Biology, was the leader of a team that analyzed current distributions of over 2,000 California endemic plants based on data from the Consortium of California Herbaria and the Jepson Flora Project. The team projected these distributions into the future under various climate change models, and discovered that many of these species are in great danger unless they can move to new localities with appropriate climate.
Read the original scientific publication
Learn more about this study in recent media:
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The Jepson Herbarium participates in 2008 California Wildflower Show at Oakland Museum |
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On April 19th and 20th, hundreds of wildflowers from around the state were on display!
Slide lectures were presented on horticulture, California flora, and the history of plant collecting in the state.
Oakland Museum Wildflower Show. |
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High-level Iranian officials make a rare visit to the University and Jepson Herbaria |
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December 2007--High-level Iranian officials made a rare visit to the University and Jepson Herbaria, seeking to augment ongoing scholarly collaboration with UC Berkeley scientists and students.
"Politics is going to fluctuate, but science is something that is not going to change with the president," said Dr. Mostafa Rahmani, director of the Islamic Republic of Iran's office at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, D.C. "We need to invest for what is more permanent… Animosity is not going to go away unless these two great countries enhance their interaction in peaceful arenas."
Right: On a map of his nation, Iranian official Mostafa Rahmani spots sites of recent collaborative research by Iranian and UC botanists, as Dr. Foisee Tahbaz and Dr. Abolfazi Mehrabadi look on.
(Cathy Cockrell photo)
Read the UC press release
Learn about the American-Iranian Botanical Program
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The first moss genome is published December 13th, 2007 |
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The first moss genome was published online in Science Express December 13th, 2007, in advance of its print publication in Science January 4th, 2008, providing insights into traits involved in the movement of plants onto land. University and Jepson Herbaria Director Brent Mishler co-authored the paper.
Learn more about it:
Read the UC press release.
Explore the The Moss Genome Project. |
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Bruce Baldwin receives Botanical Society of America Merit Award |
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Bruce Baldwin |
At the 2007 national meetings in Chicago, the Botanical Society of America presented its prestigious Merit Award to Bruce Baldwin, Curator of the Jepson Herbarium and Professor of Integrative Biology.
“Dr. Bruce Baldwin is recognized for his contributions in plant systematics. Beginning in graduate school, Dr. Baldwin studied one of the icons of island biogeography, the Hawaiian Silversword Alliance. His dissertation work using chloroplast DNA was one of the pioneers on island plant groups and confirmed that this morphologically diverse group represented a single colonization event from ancestors in North America. Baldwin reconfirmed these results using nuclear genes, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. His development of ITS for plant phylogenetic study is perhaps his most widely recognized contribution. Less well-known outside of California is that Dr. Baldwin has made major contributions to plant floristics, through his efforts editing the Jepson Desert Manual and the 2nd edition of the Jepson Manual of California plants. For his many contributions to the systematics of Asteraceae, Hawaiian plant biogeography and evolution, and advances in molecular systematics, the BSA is pleased to recognize Dr. Bruce Baldwin with its highest award.”
The August 2007 newsletter of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists announced that its membership has selected Dr. Baldwin as the society’s President-elect for the coming year.
The ASPT has also selected Abby Moore as recepient of a Graduate Student Research Award for her population genetic study of the genus Grindelia (Compositae). |
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Welcome Anna Larsen, new Coordinator of Public Programs |
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Anna Larsen |
In July 2007, Anna Larsen joined the staff of the
Jepson Herbarium as Coordinator of Public
Programs. Anna will have many responsibilities
but the biggest component of her new position
will be to develop and implement the 2008
workshop season. The full schedule will be
available this fall and from the classes that she
has planned so far, I can see that 2008 will be
an exciting workshop season!
Many of you may have met Anna when she served as
Interim Coordinator in 2005. When I asked her
what she enjoyed most about that position she
said “I love the people, the places we go, the
plants we get to see and I love the sense of
community.” When the position of full-time
coordinator became available this summer, Anna
was eager to apply.
Anna attributes her interest in science to her
early introduction to the natural world – she
grew up in rural Vermont about a mile from the
Canadian border and she spent a lot of time in
the woods behind her house catching monarch
butterflies and climbing trees. Anna developed a
strong interest in Botany as an undergraduate at
Skidmore College when she took a non-majors
course ‘Biology of the Green World’. This course
opened her eyes to how closely the lives of
people and plants are intertwined and led Anna to
the popular literature on medicinal plants. Her
interests continued to develop and eventually she
came to UC Berkeley where she has pursued (and
almost completed!) her Ph.D. studying the
prehistorical co-movement of plants and people in
Oceania.
During her dissertation studies, Anna traveled to
the Society Islands, Samoa, American Samoa,
Tonga, Indonesia, and Hawaii. She also lived in
Australia for a year as an undergraduate. Through
all of these travels, Anna has gathered many
interesting stories to share around the campfire!
Anna has also been very active in the field of
science education. She has taught various courses
for UC Berkeley undergraduates including General
Biology, Medical Ethnobotany, and the Biology and
Geomorphology of Tropical Islands. She co-taught
a natural history course for middle and high
school biology students at Richmond High School
and Adams Middle School. Most recently, she was
an instructor for Project POSIT’s Summer
Institute, a professional development partnership
between the Oakland Unified School District and
partner organizations, including the Berkeley
Natural History Museums.
Each coordinator brings their own expertise to
the position and we encourage each one to pursue
their own professional interests. When I asked
Anna how she would like to see Jepson’s education
program develop, she said “I would love to see
the program expand to include more opportunities
for kids (or their science teachers) to get
involved in nature and natural history. By the
time they reach middle school, students are
primed to understand how science works and they
still have the energy and enthusiasm for getting
involved. That’s the age when you can catch
their interest. Kids really come alive when they
get the chance to get out of the classroom and
get into nature.”
Welcome Anna, we all look forward to working with
you as you continue the excellent tradition of
the Jepson workshop program and expand the
opportunities for a new audience!
Learn more about Anna’s work by visiting the
Contra Costa Times website and viewing a
presentation that recently featured the GK12
Exploring California Biodiversity Project. The
presentation is of a field trip to the intertidal
zone, including high school students, classroom
teachers, and graduate student researchers. View
the online Flash Slideshow.
—Staci Markos |
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Congratulations to our graduate students! |
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From left to right: Eric Harris (PhD),
Elizabeth Zacharias (PhD), Anna Larsen (PhD), Professor Bruce Baldwin,
Ruth Kirkpatrick (PhD), Professor Brent Mishler, Danica Harbaugh (PhD), Professor Tom Carlson, Bianca Knoll (MS), and Andy Murdock (PhD). |
Congratulations to our Herbaria graduate students! A large cohort of Herbaria-associated students were awarded their advanced degrees May 19th, 2007, at the Department of Integrative Biology graduation (fully 28% of the department's total!). A champagne reception, well-attended by family and friends, was held afterwards in the front room of the Herbaria to wish them continued success. (Click on images for larger versions.) |
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From left to right: Bianca Knoll,
Elizabeth Zacharias, Anna Larsen, Andy Murdock, Danica Harbaugh,
Ruth Kirkpatrick, and Eric Harris.
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Joel Nitta (right), who did his senior thesis in Brent Mishler's Lab on filmy fern systematics, received the Integrative Biology Departmental Citation for the most outstanding undergraduate. |
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Two events celebrate the rediscovery of the Mount Diablo buckwheat |
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Mount Diablo buckwheat
(Eriogonum truncatum) |
Meet the Mount Diablo Buckwheat (Wednesday, May 16, 7 pm) and
First Annual Find the Mount Diablo Buckwheat Day (Saturday, May 19)
The Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum) had not been observed
since 1936, and was considered possibly extinct until recently. A single
population of the East Bay and Solano County endemic Mount Diablo
buckwheat was found in 2005 by Mike Park, a graduate student at the UC and Jepson Herbaria. The Mount Diablo
working Group has organized a Mount Diablo Buckwheat identification
workshop to help botanists search for new populations. The world
buckwheat expert, Dr. Jim Reveal, will demonstrate diagnostic
morphological characters and identification tips. In addition, you can
meet the buckwheat! Mount Diablo buckwheat individuals, in cultivation at
the UC Botanical Garden, will be available for up close examination.
The workshop is an excellent way to prepare for the First Annual Find the
Buckwheat Day. This event is co-sponsored by East Bay CNPS and the
Working Group, and will be a coordinated survey for the buckwheat in
historic locations and likely habitat in eastern Contra Costa County.
Teams of botanists will survey and document their searches. Each team
will be given maps and background data. Botanists of all backgrounds are
needed to ensure thorough searches and documentation. Some teams will be
searching in areas otherwise not open to the public. Find the Buckwheat
day is a great opportunity to botanize new natural areas in the East Bay!
Two brochures are available from Mount Diablo Working Group. One
is an identification guide for buckwheats in eastern Contra Costa County;
the other is a pamphlet about the Mount Diablo buckwheat. |
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American-Iranian Botanical Program makes campus news |
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American-Iranian Botanical Program, coordinated by Dr. Fosiee Tahbaz, is featured in the Berkeleyan:
Photo credit: Barbara Ertter |
Botanist Fosiee Tahbaz, coordinator of the American-Iranian Botanical Program, photographs a rarely sighted wild orchid during a 2004 botanizing foray to western Iran, undertaken with several of her Iranian and American colleagues.
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Holiday Season 2006 |
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Holiday greetings from all of us at the University and Jepson Herbaria and best wishes for a prosperous 2007! |
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Herbaria popular at Homecoming & Parents Weekend 2006 |
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A recent report from the UC Berkeley News Center:
Photo credit: Peg Skorpinski |
Freshman Danielle Hacker and collections manager Kim Kersh examine a specimen of Mexican lily (Beschorneria yuccoides), collected from Cerro Tres Picos, north of Tonalá, Chiapas. A tour of the University and Jepson Herbaria, housing 2.2 million specimens, was a popular feature of Homecoming events. |
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Herbarium visit to
Rockpile Ranch and Vineyard |
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In June, faculty, staff, and students of the herbaria spent
a special day at Rockpile Vineyard, home of Jepson Trustee, Rod Park
and his wife Cathy. Rod and Cathy hosted the group in a lovely
outdoor setting with a "wild" pig roast and tastings of wine from the
vineyard. After lunch, the group went on a short excursion to view
petroglyphs and add to the plant list that was started during the
herbarium's first trip to the ranch in the early 1990's.
Photo credits: Thomas J. Rosatti |
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Calochortus luteus |
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Brent Mishler, Rod Park, and the group. |
Lunch on the front lawn. |
The fabulous buffet. |
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Herbaria host international moss conference |
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An international meeting of moss experimental biologists, Moss 2006 was held at UC Berkeley from June 26th through July 1st, 2006, hosted by Integrative Biology Professor Brent Mishler. The meeting, attended by 70 participants from all over the world, was timed to coincide with the completion of sequencing of the full genome of the moss Physcomitrella at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI). Dr. Mishler was one of two co-PIs on this project, and Integrative Biology Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Boore was the liaison with JGI. This moss genome, nearly 500 million nucleotides in size, is the first land plant genome sequenced outside the flowering plants. Many functional and evolutionary insights are already being discovered, and were presented at Moss 2006. |
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Cal Day Review 2006 |
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Cal Day, April 22, 2006, was a tremendous success and saw thousands of people come through the Valley Life Sciences Building. The Herbaria were one of the main attractions with numerous exhibits designed at educating and reaching the public by interaction with herbarium staff, students, and volunteers. Five 'behind the scenes' tours gave parties a historical insight and overview of what the functions of the Herbaria are and how plants are collected, processed, and archived. The wild flower showcase was equally popular and received a lot of attention from young and old alike. Other exhibits included edible fungi, economic plants, T-shirt sale, and a UC Botanical garden display. |
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Cal Day 2006 gave the Herbaria an opportunity to showcase research, outreach, and publications. We plan to make Cal Day 2007 equally as appealing with a host of new ideas to engage our visitors. |
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The wild flower display was hosted by staff and volunteers with children receiving miniature herbarium sheets that they could keep and use to identify by matching with living plants. | |
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Herbaria Director Brent Mishler explaining the use of historical specimens as part of the behind the scenes tour. |
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Second edition treatments are now available |
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Treatments prepared for the Second Edition of The Jepson Manual are now available for public viewing at ucjeps.berkeley.edu/jepsonmanual/review/. Treatments will be incrementally posted after they have undergone both technical and scientific editing within the Jepson Flora Project. Comments are currently being accepted; feedback is welcomed.
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Herbaria web site gets a new look |
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March 27, 2006 — Over the next few weeks, many of the pages will be updated and some new features added. There may be a bit of reorganization and fine-tuning during this period. Thanks for your patience as we improve our site.
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New publication |
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The Revised Catalog of Lichens, Lichenicoles, and Allied Fungi in California by Shirley C. Tucker and Bruce D. Ryan is issued as number 84 of Constancea.
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Graduate student delivers keynote address at international conference |
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Danica Harbaugh visits the Colo-I-Suva Nursery in Fiji |
Graduate student Danica Harbaugh presented the keynote address to an international conference on sandalwood research.
The conference was held November 28 to December 1, 2005 in Nadi on the island of Fiji. Participants were invited from Pacific island countries and territories with additional representatives from Australia, Indonesia, Timor Leste, and the United States. The conference dealt with sandalwood research, development, and extension work in Pacific island countries and territories.
Danica's dissertation research focuses on reconstructing the phylogeny of the genus Santalum (Santalaceae) which includes the sandalwoods (commonly known for their use in the essential oil industry). She is interested in determining the evolutionary relationships of the taxa as well as in elucidating dispersal patterns of the genus throughout its distribution (Australia, India, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands). In addition, she is working on a taxonomic revision of Santalum and a monograph of the genus.
Pictures from the conference
Conference details: papgren.blogspot.com/2005/10/regional-sandalwood-workshop-spc-land.html |
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Mount Diablo Buckwheat rediscovered after 70 years |
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New MEKA-Edit available |
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Chris Meacham, funded by a grant from the Lawrence R. Heckard Fund of the Jepson Herbarium, has produced a new version of MEKA-Edit, the program by which
keys are constructed in MEKA. The new version takes advantage of Windows features to make key-building easier and more flexible. It also includes a converter so that MEKA keys may be displayed on the Web. MEKA-Edit, bundled with MEKA and keys to >150 genera of California Asteraceae,
can be freely downloaded and distributed.
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MEKA keys added to the Online Interchange |
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The multiple-entry keys for >150 genera, mostly of Asteraceae, that have been
so far available only as as a download,
have been converted by Chris Meacham to a format (SLIKS) that can be displayed directly in a browser. All the keys are
listed on one page
and each generic key is listed with the appropriate Interchange genus page
(e.g. Ageratina)
and linked to the Manual taxonomic treatments
(e.g.,
Ageratina adenophora).
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Danica Harbaugh receives Lawrence Memorial Award |
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During the BSA banquet at the Botany 2004 conference in Snowbird, UT, Danica Harbaugh was awarded the Lawrence Memorial Award, which commemorates the achievements of the founding director, Dr. George H.M. Lawrence, of the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University. The annual award of $2000 is given to a doctoral candidate for travel as part of dissertation research in systematic botany or horticulture. Danica used the funding to conduct fieldwork in Australia in August-September 2004, as part of her dissertation on the phylogeny and taxonomy of the sandalwoods (Santalum, Santalaceae). |
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American–Iranian Botanical Program |
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Collection list for 2004 posted.
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New features in the Online Interchange |
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The dichotomous keys from The Jepson Manual are now available online
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See archive page for past news
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