New species of mushroom discovered right on the Berkeley campus by UC Research Associate Else Vellinga, in relation to the North American Mycoflora Project. ... Read more

David Baxter, UC/JEPS Biodiversity Informatics Manager, coauthored a recent study on trends in usage of plant biodiversity websites, which included the Jepson eFlora and the Consortium of California Herbaria. Google Analytics reveals that these California-specific resources are frequently accessed by users all over the world, and are increasingly popular on mobile platforms. ... Open access article available here

Richard G. Beidleman
June 3, 1923 — August 7, 2014
We are mourning the loss of Research Associate Dick Beidleman, who was a devoted archivist and workshop instructor. Dr. Beidleman taught at the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and Colorado College. He co-authored Plants of Rocky Mountain National Park, and his most recent book was California's Frontier Naturalists (University of California Press). We will miss his warmth, wisdom, and humor. Read his obituary in the Pacific Grove Cedar Street Times.

Alan Smith was awarded the prestigious Asa Gray Award by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists at its July 2014 annual meeting, "for outstanding accomplishments pertinent to the goals of the Society." Dr. Smith has been curator of ferns in the University Herbarium at UC Berkeley for his whole career and was lauded for both his outstanding contributions to fern floristics and phylogenetic systematics, as well as for developing one of the most important and well-curated fern herbaria in the world. ... Read more

Research team led by UC/JEPS Director Brent Mishler has just published a major paper presenting new quantitative methods for looking at patterns of phylogenetic diversity and endemism on the landscape using collection data.
Read the University news release ... The paper is available at: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140718/ncomms5473/full/ncomms5473.html.

The University and Jepson Herbaria has a new specimen search portal, providing access to databased records of herbarium specimens of all plant and fungal taxa from all over the world ... Try it out

The 2015 SO BE FREE foray will be held March 27-30, 2015, in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California, approximately 2 hours east of L.A. and 4 hours south of Las Vegas. Participants will see a variety of habitats ranging from cismontane chaparral, oak woodland, riparian wash, conifer woodland, and transmontane high desert. More information and registration form available here.

Paul Claude Silva
October 31 1922 — June 12 2014
Curator of Algae, University Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley
Phycology, biological nomenclature, the California flora, UC/JEPS, and numerous political, social, and cultural causes lost a devoted friend when Paul Silva died after a several-year illness. Paul's diligence and enthusiasm have affected all of us. We will feel his loss for a long time to come.

New book on California lichens by research associate Stephen Sharnoff, with gorgeous photos, was just published. Available from Yale University Press

New NSF grant to study California plant biodiversity and endemism in a phylogenetic context, received by Brent Mishler, Bruce Baldwin, and David Ackerly, will apply novel phylogenetic methods to better understand the distribution of plant diversity across both space and time in California. This new project takes advantage of the rapidly expanding Consortium of California Herbaria, the constantly updated Jepson eFlora for California, and the wealth of phylogenetic studies that have accumulated. A comprehensive phylogeny for California plants will be built, in part using newly generated molecular data generated from fresh material gathered via an innovative collaboration with citizen scientists from the California Native Plant Society.

A new eFlora project on California Seaweeds has been funded by a three year grant from the Packard Foundation to UC Curator of Algae Kathy Ann Miller and Director Brent Mishler. This online flora will update Abbott & Hollenberg's Marine Algae of California (1976) and provide a portal for students, ecologists, managers, and the public who wish to learn more about our 750 seaweed species. ... Read more

The Daily Cal's photographic profile of Integrative Biology 157, "California Ecosystems", taught by UC/JEPS Curator of Neotropical Flora, Paul Fine. ... Read more

The University features the Jepson Public Programs on the occasion of its 20th season. ... Read more

The 2014 SO BE FREE foray was held March 28-31, 2014, in the Santa Cruz Mountains approximately 1.5 hours south of San Francisco. More than 50 participants visited a region rich in limestone and marble, as well as marine sandstone deposits, supporting a number of rare endemic bryophytes. Habitats seen included coastal prairie, coast redwood forest, live oak forest, and chaparral scrub.

Roderic Park, Chair of the Jepson Trustees and long-time friend of the Herbaria, dies at 81. ... Read more

Herbaria Research Associate Ingrid Jordon-Thaden is honored twice this summer, awarded with the Margaret Menzel Award for her presentation at the Botany2013 conference, as well as the NERDS Outstanding Mentor Award.

Jepson Curator Bruce Baldwin given the Asa Gray award by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. ... Read more

UC awarded a major NSF grant to complete digitizing the macroalgal collection. ... Read more.

The first set of revised treatments in the Jepson eFlora is now posted online (http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html). The revisions involve 13 genera.
For the full details and a supplement for TJM2, please see this summary of changes: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM_suppl_summary.html

Director Brent Mishler will spend the month of August 2013 in Australia, as a Murray-Darling Basin Futures Visiting Fellow at the University of Canberra, where he will collaborate with resident researchers in applying phylogenetic approaches to conservation efforts in this region. He will also be leading a workshop in this area of study. ... Read more.

The Center for Herbal Identity (CHI)
has been established, the first university-industry collaboration of its kind, dedicated to advancing the science of herbal identification and authentication using morphological and cutting-edge molecular methods.
... Read more ...

UC/JEPS Curator of Ethnobotany Tom Carlson featured on Public Radio's Science Friday program: ... Read more.

Annotated Checklist of the East Bay Flora
UC/JEPS Curator of Western North American Flora Barbara Ertter and restoration ecologist, botanist, and photographer Lech Naumovich have published a new edition of the Annotated Checklist of the East Bay Flora, incorporating a wealth of new information.
Order here.

$4M grant from USDA awarded to the University and Jepson Herbaria for a project under the direction of Jennifer Sowerwine to work with tribal groups in the Klamath Basin in Oregon and California to build sustainable regional food systems and enhance tribal health and food security. ... Read more.

KQED Quest interview of Kathy Ann Miller about the importance of seaweeds, the UC algal herbarium, and the specimen digitization project ... Watch video.

California Moss eFlora now online ... Read more

A symposium was held in celebration of Paul C. Silva's 90th birthday and his legacy, The Center for Phycological Documentation on 27 October, 2012
Read more ...

Brent Mishler presented an invited keynote address on the topic of "A new era for natural history collections: the impact of digitization and phylogenetics on analysis of biodiversity data," at the Australasian Systematic Botany Society Conference 2012, 23-28 September, 2012, in Perth, Western Australia ... Read the abstract

Elizabeth Zacharias and Bruce Baldwin recognized for outstanding publication, by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists at its July 2012 national meeting. Read more ...

UC received major funding as part of a large consortium to digitize macrofungi collections across the nation, in the second round of the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program at NSF. UC Curator of Fungi Tom Bruns is campus PI. This brings us to four major digitization projects active in the Herbaria at present. .... Read more

A.W. Mellon Foundation grant
funds a Sawyer Seminar series for 2012–2013 on Speciesism and its many implications. There will be a public major speaker event associated with each seminar session.

The Berkleyan and the UC Berkeley News Center featured an article about the Manual and Jepson Curator Bruce Baldwin by Cathy Cockrell.

BERKELEY — Thanks to new molecular-genetic tools and intensive field research, scientists' understanding of the native flora of the Golden State — one of the world's hotspots of botanical diversity — has grown exponentially in the 18 years since publication of The Jepson Manual, the authoritative reference on California botany. New native plants have been discovered, evolutionary relationships redefined, additional species threatened or endangered by development and climate change — .... read more