| JEPSON HERBARIUM PUBLIC PROGRAMS | |
| BASIC BOTANY |
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This workshop will introduce students to the remarkably diverse and species-rich group of organisms known as green plants. It will emphasize features (both reproductive and vegetative) that distinguish green plants from other, more distantly-related groups of photosynthetic organisms. A brief survey of the diversity of green plants will be given, stressing the evolutionary relationships among major groups as they are currently understood. The point of departure for this survey will be the general plant life cycle. From here the workshop will progress from the green algae, through the liverworts, mosses, lycophytes, and ferns, and conclude with the gymnosperms (cycads, conifers, and others). At each stage important morphological features and evolutionary advances will be outlined. Live material from each group will be available for examination of reproductive and vegetative characters.
Course fee $100/$125. This workshop is designed to be a companion to "Introduction to Morphology and Identification of Flowering Plants."
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Would you like to learn how to identify wildflowers or refine your skills and expand your botanical vocabulary? If so, join us for this workshop where we will explore plant classification and the detailed morphology of flowers and fruits. Emphasis will be on learning the floral characters needed to identify plants using The Jepson Manual and other identification guides. Participants will also learn the specialized features of groups such as grasses and composites. Throughout the class, participants will be introduced to plant families that are commonly encountered in California.
Course fee $100/$125. This workshop is designed to be a companion to "Introduction to the Plant Kingdom" and is appropriate for both beginners and those seeking an in-depth review.
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And there is an additional offering:
March 29-30, 2003
This course will be an introduction to the flora of the San Francisco Bay region and the techniques used to identify plants of the Bay Area. It is designed for those unfamiliar with plant identification keys and are ready to jump into botanical detective work. Emphasis will initially be on the recognition and keying of plant families encountered in the field. With a working knowledge of common plant families, and comfort in using plant keys, identification is an enjoyable challenge. This is also a great way to appreciate plants and take the time to look at them closely. Although this course will involve no collecting of plants, we will discuss the nature, use, and importance of herbarium collections. There will also be an introduction to reference books valuable for the identification of plants in California. An historical perspective on botanical collecting in California will also be presented. Class will be outdoors except the first morning. Participants in the class may drive up to 75 miles per day and hike up to 3 miles each day. Students must take day 1 before days 2-4, because the introductory information will lay the foundation for the rest of the course.
Course fee $120/$145. Enrollment is limited to 14 participants.
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| BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATION |
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During this weekend, participants will learn how to create accurate pencil drawings of plants and plant parts. No experience is necessary. Even experienced illustrators will have the opportunity to hone their techniques. The skills taught will emphasize drawing using scientific methods, field sketching, and reading and interpreting existing scientific illustrations. We will have the opportunity to examine plants in the lab using the dissecting microscope. During a visit to the UC Botanical Garden, we will focus on the illustration of large plant parts and habit sketches.
| SPECIAL SERIES |
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One of the grand themes in biology is that all life on earth is related, descendant from a single common ancestor. Like no other time in history, recent advances in evolutionary biology have allowed scientists to investigate the origin and diversity of all life on earth. A flood of new information, from whole-genome sequences to inventories of earth's biota, is transforming 21st century biology.
The Tree of Life Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort among biologists from around the world. Working together, their goal is to assemble a phylogeny, or genealogical map, for all 1.7 million described species on earth. The results to date have been stunning. We now know that over half of the organismal diversity on earth is represented by bacteria, that fungi are more closely related to humans than they are to plants, and plants are represented by three major groups, the red plants, the brown plants, and the green plants.
We hope you will join us for a series of lectures that explore the tree of life and discuss the evolutionary history that generated the organismal diversity on earth.
Schedule
Please make checks payable to: UC Regents.
For more information, call (510) 643-7008.
| WEEKEND WORKSHOPS |
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We will visit the 5,880 acre Sedgwick Reserve of the University of California Nature Reserve System. The reserve lies on the south slopes of the San Rafael Mountains of Santa Barbara County along the north edge of the Santa Ynez Valley. The reserve was given to the University of California by Francis "Duke" and Alice Sedgwick. The reserve boundaries transect lowlands of the Paso Robles formation, cross the Little Pine Fault into serpentine and metamorphic outcrops, and encompass two nearly complete watersheds. Habitats include live oak-blue oak woodland, valley oak savanna, native perennial grasslands, coastal sage scrub, riparian and vernal pool habitats, and serpentine outcrops.
The reserve flora includes over 400 species of native plants, including a number of regional endemics. The course will emphasize the floristics of the vascular plants and ecology of the dominant plant communities of the reserve. We will hike throughout the reserve, which has over 38 miles of roads and trails. Afternoon and evening meetings will be held in Duke Sedgwick's sculpting studio. In addition to botanizing, ample opportunities exist for birding, photography, and painting.
Course fee ($325/350) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the workshop. A few indoor sleeping accommodations are available. There is ample space to camp under the oaks, just outside the main facilities building.
Topics to be covered will include overview and discussions of characters used in the identification and classification of ferns and fern allies in California and adjacent states. Living and pressed plants, with the UC Botanical Garden as our backdrop, will be used to illustrate many of the characters used in identification and to provide material for using keys (to be furnished). Other features to be discussed, at levels geared to the interests and backgrounds of the participants, will include fern life cycles, reproduction (vegetative, sexual), distribution, ecology, evolutionary relationships, and hybridization. Ruth Kirkpatrick, a graduate student at UC, will give insight from her research on adaptations to xeric environments and desiccation tolerance in ferns, especially in California Pellaea and relatives. There will be ample opportunity to ask questions, practice identification, and to go off on fern tangents....
California's desert flora is fascinating and surprisingly diverse. Spectacular wildflower displays and strange plant life forms are only a small part of the deserts' botanical appeal. Our deserts harbor plants representing genera or families unknown elsewhere in the state, as well as unusual species of groups familiar to many California botanists. Join us for a weekend in one of the most floristically rich areas of southeastern California, where we will see a wide diversity of desert plants in bloom and have an excellent opportunity to use the new Jepson Desert Manual.
Course fee ($425/450) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the workshop. Limited indoor sleeping accommodations are available. There is ample space to camp just outside the main facilities building.
This short course in microbiotic soil crusts will emphasize the basic structural and functional aspects of arid land soil crust communities. We will also learn about desert lichens that are not part of the soil crust community. Classroom instruction will include information about the biological components of soil crusts, their ecological roles, the nature and dynamics of their interactions with vascular plant communities, the ecological consequences of damaging soil crust communities, and their potential for reclamation. In the laboratory, we will discuss and practice identifying some of the more prominent members of the soil crust community and other desert lichens. A day-long field trip will investigate microbiotic crust communities at several locations in the eastern Mojave Desert. A series of handouts and references will be distributed at the workshop.
Course fee ($350/375) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the workshop. Sleeping accommodations are in double occupancy rooms.
With an area of 75 square miles, Santa Catalina is one of the largest and most diverse of the eight California Channel Islands. Its flora comprises nearly 450 native taxa and 200 non-native taxa. Arctostaphylos catalinae, Cercocarpus traskiae, Dudleya virens subsp. hassei, Eriogonum giganteum subsp. giganteum, Galium catalinense subsp. catalinense, Lyonothamnus floribundus subsp. floribundus, and Mimulus traskiae (now presumed to be extinct) are known only from Catalina. In addition, there are at least 30 insular endemics that are shared with one or more of the neighboring islands. Feral goats have recently been removed from Catalina Island, feral pig populations have been drastically reduced, and the vegetation is now recovering. This intensive four-day workshop will focus on the field identification of Catalina's flora, with an emphasis on insular endemics. There will be opportunities to search for long-lost plants like Dissanthelium californicum and Mimulus traskiae, explore beautiful sea coves, and rugged coastlines. Depending on road conditions, participants will be able to visit many of island's remote corners. Evening lectures will cover the history of land use and botanical exploration, describe the island's major plant associations, and discuss correlations between environmental factors and plant distributions.
Course fee ($575/$600) includes meals, lodging, round-trip transportation between the mainland and the island, and transportation on the island. Sleeping accommodations are in double occupancy rooms. We will depart for Catalina Island from San Pedro Harbor on Thursday morning.
"I am the grass; I cover all" (Carl Sandburg, Grass). Prominent in plant communities throughout California, the grass family (Gramineae or Poaceae) is the state's second most diverse plant family (after Compositae). A species-rich assemblage, its members include cool-season and warm-season species, annuals and perennials, natives and exotics, and widespread dominants to rare endemics. A better understanding of this ubiquitous and diverse family can be gained through this workshop. Participants will be instructed in detail on the vegetative and reproductive features of grasses. Aspects of anatomy, physiology, ecology, and ethnobotany will also be addressed. Most time will be spent learning to use the identification keys in The Jepson Manual. Special attention will be given to difficult couplets and taxa. In addition, participants will learn how to determine major tribes and common genera by use of diagnostic characteristics. Sunday, there will be a field trip to a serpentine prairie to examine grasses in a natural setting.
Course fee $175/$200
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The western North American landscape, climate, and flora have undergone profound changes throughout Earth's history. To gain a fuller appreciation of the development of the California flora we will look specifically at the fossil record of plants and geologic events of the Far West to better understand where, when, and under what environmental conditions various plant taxa lived and died. The first day, we will begin with a short history of paleobotany in the state, review the major plant groups through time, provide an overview of California's Mesozoic plant life, and follow with a discussion on the origin and appearance of the flowering plants. Weighed against the many vagaries that occur between growth, death, fossilization, and the discovery of plant fossils, we will then focus on the next 65 million years (Tertiary period) taking an in-depth look at the biological and geological events that have taken part in the rise of California's present-day flora and vegetation. We will use UC Berkeley's extensive fossil plant and herbarium material to illustrate and enhance these discussions. The second day we will visit a Bay Area paleobotanical site for a hands-on field experience.
Military installations often support substantial areas of relatively undisturbed native vegetation and are often refuges for rare and endemic species. The California Army National Guard has granted us an unusual opportunity to visit Camp San Luis Obispo (located between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay on Highway 1). This National Guard post has much more to offer than what can be seen from the highway. It is a floristically and ecologically important parcel of largely undeveloped land that has a number of sensitive plant (and animal) species. The weekend will be spent in the field: hiking and driving on paved or good dirt roads. We plan to visit serpentine outcrops and mine tailings, make a trip to one of the famous historical collection sites on the post, and hike on Cerro Romualdo, one of the Seven Sisters that is not generally accessible to the public. We will also discuss the California National Guard's stewardship program.
Course fee ($325/350) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the workshop. Sleeping accommodations are in quad occupancy rooms.
Hastings, in the upper Carmel Valley, has been the site of numerous scientific field studies during the past 60 years. As a consequence, a great deal is known about the flora and fauna of this site. We will take advantage of this knowledge as we examine selected aspects of the pollination ecology of the Reserve's spring wildflowers. Several field exercises are planned to demonstrate how and when flowers make their pollen and nectar rewards available to pollinators, and how pollinators use their behavioral, morphological, and physiological adaptations to extract floral resources. Much of our attention will be focused on the rich variety of solitary bee species (200-250 species) and the flowers they visit at Hastings. Not to worry, none of the bee species we will study are in the least bit aggressive. Various bee groups will be examined under magnification to observe relevant morphological adaptations. Participants will be instructed on the wide variety of methods that are used to study pollination relationships. During the evenings, talks will be presented on the topics of pollination syndromes in plants, bee diversity, global pollinator decline, and encouraging pollinators in your backyard environment.
Course fee ($325/$350) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the workshop. Limited indoor sleeping accommodations are available. There is ample space to camp just outside the main facilities building.
The Spring Mountains have the greatest relief of any of the 314 mountain ranges in Nevada, rising 9,440 feet from a base elevation of 2,250 feet to 11,690 feet on Mt. Charleston Peak. Environments in this area range from alpine fell-fields to hot desert salt flats, to a 20-mile long swath of desert springs pouring out 30,000 cubic feet of water per second, 24/7. There are 8 endemic plant species at Ash Meadows and another 17 in the Spring Mountains. The Spring Mountains have the most diverse flora (441 genera, 979 species, and 1,100 taxa including varieties and subspecies) of any Nevada mountain. Walk with the author of the soon-to-be published Flora of the Spring Mountains and the author of Atlas of Nevada Conifers, as they help you interpret the magnificent natural history and unique characteristics of this island in the sky. We will base our operations out of a hotel at 6,500 ft on the mountain - you'll want the creature comforts at night, as we may experience extreme weather and temperatures during the day.
Course fee ($510/$535) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the workshop. Sleeping accommodations are in double occupancy hotel rooms.
The San Joaquin River Basin forms the divide between the central and southern Sierran floras and the Sierra National Forest provides a wonderful setting for studying the flora and ecology of the central Sierra Nevada. Field excursions will focus on the diversity of plant communities and numerous geological formations that provide the backdrop for an evaluation of the flora. We will see several Sierran endemic plants and rare species, and observe habitats from oak woodlands up to subalpine coniferous forests. Most areas of interest will be readily accessible by vehicle and short walks will take us into various other areas. These walks will not be long or strenuous. We plan to car-camp in a Forest Service group Campground near Shuteye Peak.
Course fee ($425/$450) includes meals, campground fees, and transportation (15 passenger vans) for the duration of the workshop. Campsites will have limited amenities.
Since 1995, large numbers of tanoaks, coast live oaks, and black oaks have been dying in California's coastal counties. The epidemic, referred to as Sudden Oak Death, was first seen on tanoak in Marin County and it has since been confirmed in ten central coastal counties. The pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, was identified in January 2001 by University of California researchers. This species, known from ornamental rhododendrons in Germany and The Netherlands since 1993, had not been previously identified in California. It is now known that in addition to rhododendrons, the pathogen also spreads from non-lethal foliar infections on several other hosts including bay laurel, buckeye, toyon, maple, and honeysuckle.
Research on Sudden Oak Death, the pathogen and its hosts, has accelerated in the last year. Important discoveries have changed monitoring and management practices. Regional task forces have been established to collect data and track the distribution of the pathogen. This course is designed to provide participants with an in-depth look at the causes and complexities of Sudden Oak Death. An up-to-date account of current research and the state of the epidemic will also be provided. Day one will be spent in the classroom and on day two, the class will travel to a local field site to see the disease first hand.
The flora of the Klamath Region is exceedingly diverse and is characterized by many endemics and relict populations. On this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in this rich flora. Based in a local campground, we have planned field trips to three areas. One day will be spent exploring the Mount Eddy area, the highest point in the Klamath Region, known for its high floristic diversity. While taking in spectacular views of the Trinity Alps and Mount Shasta, we will hike through subalpine habitats, foxtail pine woodlands, and explore serpentine areas. Another day, we will hike in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. The Boulder Lake and Tracy Trail area of the Trinities is granitic, with a very different flora than the serpentines of Mount Eddy. The rich montane meadows are full of flowers, and the forests are dark with fir and hemlock, not open woodlands of pine. Lastly, we will visit the Scott Mountain Botanical Area, the type locality for several species. Here we will see Darlingtonia fens.
Course fee ($425/$450) includes meals and campground fees for the duration of the workshop. Campsites will have limited amenities; water is not available on-site. Participants will hike 2 - 6 miles per day.
Had enough of grasses and sedges? Then it's time to "rush" out and learn the third group of graminoids, Juncaceae. After a brief overview of the family worldwide (8 genera, several endemic to the Andean paramo), we will narrow our focus to the two genera that occur in California, Juncus and Luzula. Using a wide selection of freshly collected material, we will familiarize ourselves with the key morphological characters that form the basis for subgenera and identification keys. The workshop will end in the field, tracking down a diversity of species "with their feet in the ground." Remember, you too can become a "Junckie."
Course fee ($325/$350) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the course. Sleeping accommodations are in double occupancy platform tents.
Carex is one of the largest genera of vascular plants. In California, sedges are found in all of our hydric, mesic, and even periodically dry habitats - often they are either biomass or diversity dominants. Most species of Carex have strong ecological fidelity to specific habitat parameters - the literature on California vegetation too frequently defaults to the dodge "Carex sp." Avoid this pitfall, identify your sedges! Among the most sedge-rich areas of the state are the mountain meadows of the Sierra. The Field Campus offers a particularly rich spectrum of sedge diversity illustrating many of the subgeneric groupings of Carex. Daytime field work in the vicinity can be supplemented by evening study of fresh materials collected from more distant areas. As a result, we anticipate that most of the major groups of the genus will be seen during the weekend workshop. Course materials will include a revised key to the California sedges.
Course fee ($325/$350) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the course. Sleeping accommodations are in double occupancy platform tents.
Plants and animals in the Eel River of Northern California experience extreme seasonality: low flow and high temperatures during summer drought, and bed scouring floods and colder temperatures during the winter rainy season. Because the river cuts through soft rocks of the Franciscan formation, the Eel River has one of the highest sediment yields of any river of its size in the world. Biota are subject to major disturbances when these sediments are transported out to the Pacific Ocean.
This course will examine the South Fork of the Eel in early autumn, at the lowest seasonal flow. We will compare riparian and channel habitats inside and outside of areas where heavy recruitment of white alder (Alnus rhombifolia) is occurring. The recruitment may be a rare (once in a century) event that could reestablish cool water conditions along the channel that are more favorable for salmonid production.
Course fee ($325/350) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the workshop. Sleeping accommodations are in bunk houses.
The Granite Mountains of eastern San Bernardino County are geographically positioned at the hub of the Mojave, Colorado, and Great Basin Deserts, an area that receives more summer monsoon rainfall than does any other region of California. This workshop will familiarize the participants with the rich floristic diversity of the Eastern Mojave Desert, with emphasis on summer annuals and fall-flowering shrubs that respond to summer rainfall. Field trips are scheduled into the Granite Mountains and nearby sand dunes, lava flows, and limestone ranges. Participants will gain an understanding of groups of vascular plants that follow summer and fall-flowering phenologies, as well as a general relationship of this region's flora to those of other floristic provinces in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Fresh plants, preserved plants, and slide programs will be used to illustrate examples of prominent families and genera.
Course fee ($325/$350) includes meals and lodging for the duration of the workshop. Limited indoor sleeping accommodations are available. There is ample space to camp just outside the main facilities building.
| INSTRUCTORS |
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Jim Andre is co-director of the UC Riverside, Sweeney Granite Mountain Desert Research Center (SGMDRC), a plant ecologist, and curator of the Center's herbarium. He has studied Mojave Desert vegetation for 16 years, with emphasis on demographics of long-lived shrubs, conservation biology of rare plants, restoration of impacted desert habitats, and natural areas management.
Copyright 2002 by the Regents of the University of California