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Workshops by Date
Workshop Descriptions |
Workshop fees are listed as Friends of the Jepson Herbarium/General Public. To join the Friends, and receive a discount on workshop fees, click here. Workshops labeled as “Basic Botany” are introductory level workshops, designed for participants with little or no botanical background. Unless specifically stated otherwise, all other workshop content is somewhat technical, and the level of instruction will assume that participants have a general understanding of botanical terminology. Our Basic Botany workshops can provide a good foundation for the other workshops.
Arctostaphylos
Tom Parker and Michael Vasey
Location: UC Hastings Reserve, Carmel Valley
Species of Arctostaphylos (family Ericaceae, subfamily Arbutoideae) are commonly known as manzanitas in California. The genus has a high degree of endemism and some 80+ taxa are found here, with several species extending out of the California Floristic Province, including the circumboreal A. uva-ursi. Species range from small, prostrate, woody plants to tree-size forms; all are evergreen. Manzanitas are important members of a number of plant communities, especially chaparral.
A group considered difficult by many people, manzanitas can be identified by (and appreciated for) their morphological and ecological differentiation. The class will focus on key taxonomic characters during the first day, as well as some background on manzanita evolution, distribution patterns, and ecology. Fresh material from different species will be used. The second day will involve a field trip to several different habitats, learning to identify species by features available, as well as gaining new insights on their ecological and evolutionary patterns.
Basic Botany: Mastering the second edition of The Jepson Manual
Genevieve K. Walden
Location: UC Berkeley
This workshop is designed for new and current users of the second edition of The Jepson Manual and will provide an introduction to keying and offer tips about using the Manual efficiently.
As a group, participants will key plants from several families using the print edition of the Manual and will gain practical experience to quickly identify plants to family, learn tips on how to handle troublesome keys, and receive recommendations for collecting plant material with diagnostic features that are needed for identification. Common questions will be addressed head on!
Becoming adept at integrating print and digital floristic resources is an important skill for anyone conducting field work or personal study. This workshop will introduce students to two electronic resources of the Jepson Flora Project—the Jepson Online Interchange and the Jepson eFlora—which aim to track the constant flow of new floristic and taxonomic information. Particular emphasis will be given to eFlora updates that are scheduled to be released in January 2013.
The workshop will be indoors, working with plants collected from various field locations. Participants will receive a dissecting kit and will use a dissecting microscope to identify plants; previous microscope experience is helpful but not necessary. Laptop computers, tablets, smart phones, or handheld devices with the capability of connecting wirelessly to the Internet will be helpful, but not necessary.
Four sessions:
Session One • February 9 Workshop full: wait list only
OR
Session Two • March 2 Workshop full: wait list only
OR
Session Three • March 9 Workshop full: wait list only
OR
Session Four • August 17 Workshop full: wait list only
Workshop fee (for any session) $80/$120
Basic Botany: Bryophytes from the Spore Up Workshop full: wait list only
Brent Mishler, Ken Kellman, and fellow bryologists
Location: UC Berkeley
The bryophytes are a diverse group of small stature but large ecological impact. There are some 23,000 described species worldwide, making it the largest group of land plants except for the flowering plants. The group includes three phylogenetically distinct lineages: mosses, hornworts, and liverworts. The bryophytes are a "key" group in our understanding of how the modern land plants (comprising the three bryophyte lineages plus the vascular plants) are related to each other phylogenetically and how they came to conquer the land environment. Although the bryophytes display much diversity, a major limitation in the use of bryophytes as study organisms has been the lack of basic floristic, ecological, and alpha-taxonomic knowledge of the plants in many regions, of which California and the southwestern United States are the most poorly known in North America.
The first day, participants will learn about basic bryophyte biology, some simple but necessary microtechniques in the lab, and the basic structure of bryophytes along with taxonomically useful characteristics. The second day, after a morning lab session, the class will caravan to a field site and learn to identify major bryophyte groups and discuss and observe their general ecology and evolutionary features. Participants should be prepared to hike up to four miles on Sunday, in possibly wet weather conditions.
February 23-24 • Workshop fee $150/$190
Seaweeds: Details and Data
Kathy Ann Miller
Location: UC Berkeley
Explore the wonderful world of seaweeds without wetting your feet in this special on-campus workshop. In the morning, we will work with fresh, local material and herbarium specimens to understand the unique anatomical and morphological features of seaweeds, many of which are helpful for identifying species. You will learn how to prepare specimens for microscopy, including hand sections and whole mounts. You will see cells, tissues, and reproductive structures, in living color.
In the afternoon, we will use computers to explore the University Herbarium's extensive digital resources, including our current Seaweed Digitization Project, which focuses on west coast seaweed species. Find out how we are archiving images of specimens, and their locality and collection data, and how you can retrieve information online. If all this appeals, you may be interested in further training to enable you to contribute to our databasing efforts from the comfort of your own home.
Some familiarity with seaweeds is a bonus; curiosity about seaweeds, microscopes, and collections is a prerequisite.
March 16 • Workshop fee $115/$155
Spring Flora of Anza-Borrego State Park Workshop full: wait list only
Jon P. Rebman
Location: Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center
Explore desert dunes, rock flats, and mountains of southern California in Anza-Borrego State Park looking for a diversity of wildflowers and cacti. After the spring rains arrive (we hope!), this desert will come alive with color and diversity as annual plants spring forth in all of their splendor and perennials revive for reproduction. This region is part of the Lower Colorado River section of the Sonoran Desert and is home to a wide range of desert plants, including the rare Wolf’s Cholla (Cylindropuntia wolfii), the strange Elephant Tree (Bursera microphylla), and the interesting internal plant parasite Pilostyles thurberi.
This course will include information on desert plant adaptations and the diversity of plants in San Diego County and adjacent Baja California. Based out of the UC Natural Reserve System’s newest field station, we will explore the park and the flora through driving tours and short hikes.
Basic Botany: Introduction to Plant Morphology
Anna Larsen
Location: UC Berkeley
Would you like to learn more about plant morphology and expand your botanical vocabulary? If so, join us for this workshop to explore the morphology of flowers, fruits, and non-reproductive plant structures. Workshop participants will become familiar with the floral characters and terminology frequently used in the second edition of The Jepson Manual and other plant identification guides. This workshop is designed to start at an introductory level and is appropriate for the beginning botanist, nature lover, or avid gardener.
The workshop includes four three-hour sessions over two days. Each session will consist of a short lecture followed by examination of fresh plant material using hand lenses and dissecting microscopes. Microscope experience is helpful but not necessary.
March 30-31 • Workshop fee $150/$190
Basic Botany: Fifty Families in the Field: Introduction to Keying
Linda Beidleman and Richard Beidleman
Are you ready to jump into botanical detective work? With a working knowledge of common plant families, and comfort in using plant keys, identification can be an enjoyable challenge. This workshop introduces students to the flora of the San Francisco Bay area and the techniques used to identify plants of California. Emphasis will be on learning to recognize characteristics of the Bay Area’s “top 20” plant families. We will practice keying plants in the field using a working copy of an updated version of the book Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region: Mendocino to Monterey (Linda H. Beidleman and Eugene N. Kozloff, in prep.), which will be provided to all workshop participants. The nomenclature in this version will be consistent with the second edition of The Jepson Manual.
We will discuss the nature, use, and importance of herbarium collections. There also will be an introduction to reference books valuable for identifying California plants. A general familiarity with morphological terms is helpful, but not necessary, as these will be reviewed during the introductory session. The workshop will be held outdoors (rain or shine). Participants may drive up to 75 miles per day to the field sites and walk up to three miles each day. This workshop will not involve collection of plants. Students must attend all four days of the workshop, because the introductory information will lay the foundation for the rest of the workshop.
Two sessions:
Session One • Location: UC Berkeley and SF Bay Area field sites. Enrollment limited to 14 students.
April 4-7 • Workshop full: wait list only
OR
Session Two • Location: UC Hastings Reserve, Carmel Valley, and field sites in the Monterey/Carmel region. Enrollment limited to 16 students.
Workshop fee includes lodging and meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. Most participants will be accommodated in twin or bunk-style beds. Space outside the bunkhouse is also available for camping. Showers and flush toilets are available.
April 25-28 • Workshop full: wait list only
Exploring Tejon Ranch Workshop full: wait list only
Maynard Moe
Location: Tejon Ranch
The 270,000-acre Tejon Ranch, in Kern and Los Angeles Counties, is the largest contiguous private property in California and, until recently, was largely inaccessible to the public. It is a region of great biological diversity that lies at the confluence of five geomorphic provinces (Sierra Nevada, Great Central Valley, Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, and Mojave Desert) and four floristic regions—circumstances unmatched anywhere else in California. As such, this area is a haven for pristine vegetation, rare and endemic species, ancient oak trees, and intact watersheds and streams.
In 2008, an agreement was made between the Tejon Ranch Company, who owns the property, and five major environmental groups. In this Ranch-Wide Agreement, up to 90% of the property (~240,000 acres) will be protected through conservation easements and managed by the newly-formed Tejon Ranch Conservancy. The Conservancy currently has easements over 100,000 acres of the Ranch.
Special status plant species, found in the conserved lands on Tejon Ranch, include striped adobe lily (Fritillaria striata), Bakersfield cactus (Opuntia basilaris var. treleasei), Vasek’s clarkia (Clarkia temblorensis subsp. calientensis), Tejon poppy (Eschscholzia lemmonii subsp. kernensis), Comanche Point layia (Layia leucopappa), calico monkeyflower (Mimulus pictus), and others. If the rainfall patterns and weather permits, workshop participants should be able to see many of these uncommon plants.
This workshop will introduce participants to the biogeography and flora of the Ranch. Depending on weather and road conditions, participants may have the opportunity to explore woodland/forest (riparian, juniper, oak, pinyon, Joshua tree), shrubland (chamise, sagebrush, rabbitbrush, buckwheat, goldenbush), and grassland communities. We could see as many as 10 different species of oaks and over a dozen species of Lupinus, Lotus, Gilia, Eriogonum, and Camissonia. Lastly, if we are lucky, we could see California condors flying overhead.
We will explore the Ranch via a combination of car trips (4WD recommended) and moderate hikes of up to several miles on uneven terrain.
April 18-21 • Workshop fee $475/$515 includes campground fees, some transportation, and meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. Lodging is in a developed campground with vault toilets and potable water. Flush toilets are available nearby.
Botany and Big Horn Sheep* of the Whitewater/Mission Creek Preserves
Tim Krantz
Location: Southeast San Bernardino Mountains
The southeast slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains provide a critical botanical and wildlife corridor linking the floras and faunas of the Little San Bernardino Mountains and Joshua Tree National Park to the San Bernardino Mountains High Country and the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area. Managed by The Wildlands Conservancy, the Whitewater and Mission Creek Preserves comprise an ensemble of more than 10,000 acres, including rare desert riparian and wetlands communities, surrounded by a very diverse flora of Upper and Lower Desert Transition elements. Altogether, the area supports a flora of more than 500 taxa of vascular plants. The area has been seldom botanized, so our work will provide an important, comprehensive botanical survey for the combined preserve area. The area is known to support a number of northern disjunctions, including northernmost locations for miserable spurge (Euphorbia misera) and California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera), and rare endemics such as the ephemeral spotted linanthus (Linanthus maculatus) and the Federal-endangered Coachella Valley milk-vetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. coachellae).
We will stay at the Whitewater Preserve, which offers a relatively luxurious camping setting at the very edge of the wilderness. The Preserve also supports a diverse fauna, including mule deer, black bear, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion.
Participants should be prepared to hike up to eight miles each day at a brisk pace, with moderate elevation gains on uneven terrain in warm—possibly hot—weather. It is recommended that each participant carry at least one gallon of water on hikes.
*Big Horn Sheep sightings hoped for, but not guaranteed.
April 25-28 • Workshop fee $475/$515 includes campground fees, some transportation, and meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. Lodging is in a developed campground with flush toilets and potable water.
What's Eating You? A Natural History of Insect Herbivores
Pete Oboyski
Location: UC Berkeley
Insects and plants enjoy and endure a wide range of interactions including pollination, decomposition, disease transmission, and herbivory. Each of these interactions may exhibit a wide range of complexity, from mutually beneficial to parasitic, in sometimes obvious and sometimes cryptic ways. Examples of herbivores include leaf chewers, sap suckers, wood borers, gall makers, and stem, leaf, and seed miners.
In this workshop, we will explore various types of insect-plant interactions, focusing on signs, symptoms, and types of herbivory. We will begin with a discussion augmented by a slide show and hands-on inspection of different types of herbivores and signs of herbivory. We will then take a short campus field trip to observe herbivory in situ. We will finish with a show-and-tell of the day's observations and a discussion of how individuals can continue to study these fascinating interactions on their own.
This workshop is co-presented with the Essig Museum of Entomology.
May 11 • Workshop fee $115/$155
Polemoniaceae Workshop full: wait list only
Leigh Johnson
Location: UC Berkeley
The phlox family, Polemoniaceae, is not large compared to many flowering plant families, yet its ubiquity in the spring and summer floras of diverse California plant communities, combined with impressive variation in floral form and a rich background of scientific inquiry, makes knowledge of this family rewarding. California is particularly rich in Polemoniaceae diversity; 17 of 22 temperate genera and about 70% of the temperate species occur within its borders.
Key features for sight recognition of genera will be highlighted, including features for distinguishing Aliciella and Saltugilia from Gilia, and Linanthus from Leptosiphon. Features that delimit major groups within some of the more diverse genera such as Gilia and Navarretia will also be emphasized. We will work through the keys using freshly collected material (provided by the instructor) and recently pressed specimens that can be dissected as needed, with an emphasis on hands-on keying using the second edition of The Jepson Manual. The phylogenetic basis for the new classification system and some interesting examples of cryptic speciation within Californian Polemoniaceae will also be detailed. Participants are welcome to bring their own collections of Polemoniaceae for help with keying. This workshop will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Friday.
May 31-June 2 • Workshop fee $325/$365
Basic Botany: Introduction to California Plant Families Workshop full: wait list only
Matt Guilliams and Anna Larsen
Location: UC Berkeley
There are approximately 7,600 species of native or naturalized vascular plants in California: how is it possible to learn how to identify them all? Understanding plant family traits provides beginning botanists with a framework upon which to hang those thousands of species names.
This workshop will focus on 10-15 of California’s most common plant families, emphasizing the combination of vegetative and/or floral traits that is diagnostic for each family. On Saturday, lectures will alternate with lab activities using fresh plant material. On Sunday, we will review family characteristics and practice field identification by looking closely at plants in habitat. An important component of this workshop will be an introduction to the second edition of The Jepson Manual, and the use of the family key to identify unknown plants. We will discuss some of the recent changes in the classification of California’s plants and explain why such changes have taken place.
Workshop participants will use a dissecting microscope during the lab sessions: microscope experience is helpful but not necessary. Participants should be familiar with basic plant morphology. This workshop will not involve collection of plants.
June 8-9 • Workshop fee $200/$240
Monkeyflowers are one of the showiest, diverse, and most widespread groups within California. But BIG changes have happened to the monkeyflowers that were too late for inclusion in second edition of The Jepson Manual. The genus Mimulus is being split into three genera: Erythranthe, Diplacus, and Mimetanthe. In the past year, seven really cool species have been described as new to science. And, in a set of papers leading up to the Flora of North America North of Mexico Phrymaceae treatment, up to an additional 20 monkeyflowers are being proposed as valid species occurring in California.
This class will explore all of these exciting developments in the context of learning the cohesive species groups (sections) which, once recognized, allow non-experts to master the otherwise difficult monkeyflower key. For those less inclined to focus on taxonomy and keying, the field trips to beautiful areas of Kings and Sequoia National Park will allow for the appreciation of up to 20 species of monkeyflowers and many other southern Sierran endemic plants in their natural habitat. Participants will receive a handout including modified keys, relevant literature, and a working draft of the instructor’s book project on the monkeyflowers of California. Classroom activities will include slide shows to survey both rare and common monkeyflowers from all over the state and keying fresh plant material as a group.
June 13-16 • Workshop fee $425/$465 includes some transportation and meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. Accommodations will be in a developed campground with vault toilets and potable water. Flush toilets are available at the classroom.
Grasses of the Chiricahua Mountains
Travis Columbus
Location: American Museum of Natural History Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Arizona
If you have taken the Poaceae workshop on the UC Berkeley campus, and are ready for new challenges in the grass family, then this is the workshop for you. Located in the Basin and Range province, the Chiricahua Mountains are one of several "sky islands" surrounded by vast grasslands. Covering 607 square miles, the mountains reach a maximum elevation of 9,795 feet and contain floral elements from four major ecosystems: The Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, the Rocky Mountains, and Mexico's Sierra Madre. This convergence results in great diversity. More than 1,000 taxa occur in the Chiricahuas, 100 of which are in Poaceae.
Students of California's flora will be most familiar with grasses in the BOP (Bambusoideae, Oryzoideae, and Pooideae) clade. The Chiricahuas are also rich in grasses from the PACC (Panicoideae, Arundinoideae, Chloridoideae, and Centothecoideae) clade. Also known as "warm-season" grasses, these taxa can grow in arid environments and higher temperatures, often taking the form of bunchgrass. We'll focus on the warm-season grasses through a mixture of classroom presentations, lab work, and field excursions. Almost half of the taxa in the Chiricahuas—including Bouteloua gracilis, Muhlenbergia fragilis, and Sphenopholis obtusata—can be found in California, so this workshop will also provide an opportunity for participants to brush up on (or learn) some of California's grasses.
September 5-8 • Workshop fee $575/$615 includes lodging, lab fees, meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch, and some transportation from the Research Station to field sites. Participants must arrange their own transportation to Portal, Arizona: it is several hours' drive from either Tucson or Phoenix. Accommodations are rooms with 2 single beds and a common use bathroom with shower. All linens are supplied. A swimming pool is available for guest use. Camping may be available for those who prefer it; please contact the Herbarium for details.
Registration Closed
Trees of the Smoky Mountains Workshop Canceled
Dean Kelch
Location: Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Forest Diseases
Matteo Garbelotto
Location: UC Berkeley
This workshop—a must for anyone with an interest in the preservation of natural ecosystems—describes the most serious infectious diseases that have either been introduced or have emerged in California because of intensive forest management. After an introduction to the ecological role of native diseases, the theory behind biological invasions by destructive pathogens will be reviewed and discussed. The bulk of the workshop will deal with the description of the causal agents, the epidemiology, and the ecological impacts of the most important forest and tree diseases in California, including but not limited to: White pine blister rust, Sudden Oak Death, Dutch Elm Disease, Pine Pitch Canker, and Annosum root rot. Students will learn not only the biology of the pathogens, but also how to identify symptoms and the impacts of all important diseases already broadly established in California. For each disease, valid disease control practices will be discussed.
We will split our time between the classroom and local field sites, where we will see some of these forest diseases first-hand.
October 26-27 • Workshop fee $200/$240
Amphibians and Reptiles of the San Francisco Bay Area Workshop full: wait list only
Michelle S. Koo and Carol Spencer
Location: UC Berkeley and Bay Area Field Sites
From gopher snakes to slender salamanders, our backyards and local parks are home to a diverse array of reptiles and amphibians. This workshop will introduce participants to the life history, identification, and conservation of our local snakes, lizards, salamanders, toads, frogs, and newts. We’ll spend all day Saturday in the classroom, alternating lectures on natural history and global biodiversity of amphibians with lab activities using live animals and preserved specimens. Participants will learn how to use online resources such as AmphibiaWeb and mobile apps to identify species and track and share their sightings. On Sunday, we will visit the Crystal Springs Watershed (a hidden and well preserved gem that is not open to the public) to look for amphibians and reptiles in the field. This field excursion will provide an excellent opportunity to see a variety of habitats, while we observe and record our native species of frogs, salamanders, lizards, and snakes. Be prepared for wet conditions depending on weather.
This workshop is co-presented with the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. A portion of the proceeds from this workshop will support AmphibiaWeb.
November 16-17 • Workshop fee $200/$240
About Our Instructors |
Stephen J. Barnhart instructed for 37 years at Santa Rosa Junior College in biology, botany, and ecology, and is now the Academic Director at Pepperwood Preserve. He has conducted numerous field courses over the past 25 years at the Pepperwood as well as in the Sierra and the intermountain west. Steve maintains a research interest in oak biology and oak woodland dynamics and is currently involved in vegetation consultation and research activities with professors at UC Davis and UC Berkeley.
Linda Beidleman has an M.S. in biology from Rice University. She is co-author of Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region and Plants of Rocky Mountain National Park. She has worked with the California Native Plant Society, especially as co-supervisor for the CNPS East Bay plant nursery. Linda teaches short flora and ornithology courses for the Rocky Mountain National Park and the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies.
Richard Beidleman has a Ph.D. in Biology (Ecology) from the University of Colorado and has taught at the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and Colorado College (now Professor Emeritus). He is a Research Associate at the University and Jepson Herbaria and during the summer he teaches short ecology, ornithology, and flora courses in Colorado. He is co-author of Plants of Rocky Mountain National Park, and his most recent book is California's Frontier Naturalists (University of California Press).
Travis Columbus is a Research Scientist at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Professor of Botany at the Claremont Graduate University. He has a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, where he worked on Bouteloua and related taxa. His current research focuses on the evolution and classification of the grass subfamily Chloridoideae.
Matteo Garbelotto is Adjunct Professor in ESPM (Environmental Science, Policy and Management) at UC Berkeley and is the official Forest Pathologist of the entire UC System. He has taught several classes on California Forest Diseases and has worked extensively in the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, the Transverse Ranges of Southern California, and throughout the California Coast Range. His interests have led him to conduct research in Asia, Oceania, Mesoamerica, Europe, and the entire Mediterranean Basin. He has advised the US and European Union governments on several policy issues regarding the introduction and regulation of plant pathogens and is currently a member-at-large of the European Food Safety Authority.
Matt Guilliams is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Baldwin Lab at UC Berkeley. He is interested in the diversification of the California flora and, in particular, studies the genus Plagiobothrys (Boraginaceae) to examine patterns of evolution in our exceptionally biodiverse and environmentally heterogeneous state. He uses a combination of molecular and morphological data in his analyses and is particularly interested in the incorporation of fossil data into phylogenetic inference. Matt is a native Californian, born in Newport Beach.
Leigh A. Johnson is a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His research interests include cryptic species and species delimitation, phylogeny, phylogeography, comparative morphology, and conservation genetics. He has contributed to the Tree of Life Project, the second edition of The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California, and the Flora of North America project.
Dean Kelch is Primary Botanist at the California Department of Food and Agriculture and an Assistant Researcher with the Jepson Herbarium. He specializes in North American floristics and the systematics of conifers, particularly Podocarpaceae. Currently a resident of California, he received his early botanical training in the forests of Eastern North America, for which he retains an undeniable fondness.
Ken Kellman is a Field Associate at the California Academy of Sciences who has been studying bryophytes since 1995. Ken has published a catalog of the Mosses of Santa Cruz County, California and is currently working on a catalog of the bryophytes of Monterey County. He is largely self-taught, which puts him in the position of understanding how to teach and encourage beginning bryologists.
Michelle S. Koo is the Biodiversity Informatics & GIS Staff Curator at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), University of California at Berkeley. She now manages the Informatics Lab at MVZ, the MVZ Archives and the collections database with other staff curators, while collaborating on several informatics projects such as VertNet, AmphibiaWeb, and the Keck Informatic Engine through the Berkeley Initiative on Global Change Biology. Her current research includes mapping endemism hotspots and regions of rapid evolutionary diversification in terrestrial vertebrates of California, essentially applying spatial analysis to understanding the biogeography and phylogeography of vertebrates. She spent almost a decade conducting herpetological surveys in western USA for the California Academy of Sciences before coming to UC Berkeley.
Tim Krantz is a professor at the University of Redlands in Southern California and is an alumnus of the geography department of UC Berkeley, where he completed his dissertation on the flora and phytogeography of the San Bernadino Mountains.
Anna Larsen is a Research Associate with the University and Jepson Herbaria and has a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from UC Berkeley. Her research interests include ethnobotany and floristics in California and the Pacific Islands. Anna has taught lecture and lab courses in California Plant Life, Medical Ethnobotany, General Biology, and the Biology and Geomorphology of Tropical Islands.
Kathy Ann Miller has loved seaweeds since her first phycology class in 1976. She was trained at UC Berkeley, receiving her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in botany. She has extensive intertidal and subtidal field experience and is particularly devoted to the seaweed flora of California. She works as a curator of seaweeds with Paul C. Silva at the University Herbarium at UC Berkeley.
Brent D. Mishler is Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria as well as professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, where he teaches systematics and plant diversity. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1984. His research interests are in the systematics, evolution, and ecology of bryophytes, especially the diverse moss genus Tortula, as well as in the phylogeny of green plants and the theory of systematics.
Maynard Moe was raised from infancy in Yosemite Valley, received his B.A. (1966) and M.A. (1968) from Fresno State University and Ph.D. in Botany (1977) from UC Berkeley. Maynard is a (partially retired) professor of biology at California State University, Bakersfield. He has botanized and led field trips throughout California, especially in the Sierra and Mojave Desert regions. He has spent the last few decades in Kern County, wrote a key to Twisselmann's Flora of Kern County, and published vascular plant floras of Fort Tejon and Tule Elk State Parks. His primary interests are the floras of Kern County, the Sierra, and desert regions of California.
Pete Oboyski is Collections Manager and Senior Museum Scientist of the Essig Museum of Entomology at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) of remote pacific islands and on the natural history of insect-plant interactions.
Tom Parker is an ecologist who works with plant community dynamics. He was trained at the University of Texas (B.A.) and UC Santa Barbara (M.A., Ph.D.) and is currently a Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University. His research emphasizes plant community dynamics, especially dispersal, seed banks, and seedling establishment. His current projects focus on mycorrhizal fungal mutualists, seed dispersal, and wetland ecology. His research in chaparral forced him to be able to identify Arctostaphylos species, and he's enjoyed them ever since. His serious collecting and systematics work began more than a decade ago.
Jon P. Rebman, Ph.D., has been the Mary and Dallas Clark Endowed Chair/Curator of Botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) since 1996. He has a Ph.D. in Botany (plant taxonomy), M.S. in Biology (floristics) and B.S. in Biology. He conducts extensive floristic research in Baja California and in San Diego and Imperial counties, and contributed taxonomic treatments to the second edition of The Jepson Manual.
Steve Schoenig is the Program Manager for the California Natural Diversity Database and Vegetation Mapping Program at the California Department of Fish and Game. He has been studying and photographing monkeyflowers for the past 30 years.
Teresa Sholars is a professor at College of the Redwoods, Mendocino, where she has instructed courses in agriculture, forestry, and biological sciences for over twenty-nine years. She is Rare Plant Coordinator for the Dorothy King Young Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and a member of the Rare Plant Scientific Advisory Committee for CNPS. She consults with the Mendocino Coast Hospital in plant and mushroom poisoning cases. She has contributed several sections to both Redwood and Pygmy forest management plans and ecological accounts. She was the author of the treatment for the perennial and shrubby lupines for the second edition of The Jepson Manual and rewrote The Jepson Desert Manual key for the treatment of lupines.
Carol Spencer is the Curator of Herpetology at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley.
Michael Vasey is an instructor of biology at San Francisco State University. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and M.A. in Ecology and Systematic Biology from San Francisco State University. Mike has been focusing on the systematic relationships in Arctostaphylos for approximately fifteen years. As part of a team effort, Mike has made major contributions in developing the evolutionary context in which Arctostaphylos can be better understood and in unraveling species relationships within this challenging genus.
Genevieve K. Walden is from Fresno. She has an M.S. in Ecology and Systematic Biology from San Francisco State University, and is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Baldwin Lab at UC Berkeley. Her studies focus on the systematics of Hydrophylloideae (Boraginaceae), glandular trichomes, and digital curation. She led many of the "Jepson Manual 101" clinics in 2012.
Peter Warner holds B.S. and M.A. (Plant Ecology) degrees from Sonoma State University. He currently provides consulting services in botany and plant ecology for public and private land managers, chiefly in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, where he’s worked, walked, and explored for 34 years. His practical experience includes botanical documentation, ecological restoration, vegetation mapping and classification, environmental monitoring, volunteer and community mentorship in ecological stewardship, and biological education. He delights in daily personal discoveries of the new, unexpected, and intriguing in nature.
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Workshops by Date
January February 23-24 Basic Botany: Bryophytes from the Spore Up Workshop full: wait list only March 21-24 Spring Flora of Anza-Borrego State Park Workshop full: wait list only 30-31 Introduction to Plant Morphology April 18-21 Exploring Tejon Ranch Workshop full: wait list only 25-28 Basic Botany: 50 Families in the Field: Introduction to Keying (Hastings Reserve) Workshop full: wait list only 25-28 Botany and Big Horn Sheep of the Whitewater/Mission Creek Preserves 11 What's Eating You? A Natural History of Insect Herbivores 31-June 2 Polemoniaceae 13-16 Monkeyflowers in Flux Workshop full: wait list only 21-23 Lupinus August 17 Basic Botany: Mastering the second edition of The Jepson Manual September 5-8 Grasses of the Chiricahua Mountains 19-22 Trees of the Smoky Mountains October |
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Workshop Descriptions |
Workshop fees are listed as Friends of the Jepson Herbarium/General Public. To join the Friends, and receive a discount on workshop fees, click here. Workshops labeled as “Basic Botany” are introductory level workshops, designed for participants with little or no botanical background. Unless specifically stated otherwise, all other workshop content is somewhat technical, and the level of instruction will assume that participants have a general understanding of botanical terminology. Our Basic Botany workshops can provide a good foundation for the other workshops.
Arctostaphylos
Tom Parker and Michael Vasey
Location: UC Hastings Reserve, Carmel Valley
Species of Arctostaphylos (family Ericaceae, subfamily Arbutoideae) are commonly known as manzanitas in California. The genus has a high degree of endemism and some 80+ taxa are found here, with several species extending out of the California Floristic Province, including the circumboreal A. uva-ursi. Species range from small, prostrate, woody plants to tree-size forms; all are evergreen. Manzanitas are important members of a number of plant communities, especially chaparral.
A group considered difficult by many people, manzanitas can be identified by (and appreciated for) their morphological and ecological differentiation. The class will focus on key taxonomic characters during the first day, as well as some background on manzanita evolution, distribution patterns, and ecology. Fresh material from different species will be used. The second day will involve a field trip to several different habitats, learning to identify species by features available, as well as gaining new insights on their ecological and evolutionary patterns.
Basic Botany: Mastering the second edition of The Jepson Manual
Genevieve K. Walden
Location: UC Berkeley
This workshop is designed for new and current users of the second edition of The Jepson Manual and will provide an introduction to keying and offer tips about using the Manual efficiently.
As a group, participants will key plants from several families using the print edition of the Manual and will gain practical experience to quickly identify plants to family, learn tips on how to handle troublesome keys, and receive recommendations for collecting plant material with diagnostic features that are needed for identification. Common questions will be addressed head on!
Becoming adept at integrating print and digital floristic resources is an important skill for anyone conducting field work or personal study. This workshop will introduce students to two electronic resources of the Jepson Flora Project—the Jepson Online Interchange and the Jepson eFlora—which aim to track the constant flow of new floristic and taxonomic information. Particular emphasis will be given to eFlora updates that are scheduled to be released in January 2013.
The workshop will be indoors, working with plants collected from various field locations. Participants will receive a dissecting kit and will use a dissecting microscope to identify plants; previous microscope experience is helpful but not necessary. Laptop computers, tablets, smart phones, or handheld devices with the capability of connecting wirelessly to the Internet will be helpful, but not necessary.
Four sessions:
Session One • February 9 Workshop full: wait list only
OR
Session Two • March 2 Workshop full: wait list only
OR
Session Three • March 9 Workshop full: wait list only
OR
Session Four • August 17
Workshop fee (for any session) $80/$120
Basic Botany: Bryophytes from the Spore Up Workshop full: wait list only
Brent Mishler, Ken Kellman, and fellow bryologists
Location: UC Berkeley
The bryophytes are a diverse group of small stature but large ecological impact. There are some 23,000 described species worldwide, making it the largest group of land plants except for the flowering plants. The group includes three phylogenetically distinct lineages: mosses, hornworts, and liverworts. The bryophytes are a "key" group in our understanding of how the modern land plants (comprising the three bryophyte lineages plus the vascular plants) are related to each other phylogenetically and how they came to conquer the land environment. Although the bryophytes display much diversity, a major limitation in the use of bryophytes as study organisms has been the lack of basic floristic, ecological, and alpha-taxonomic knowledge of the plants in many regions, of which California and the southwestern United States are the most poorly known in North America.
The first day, participants will learn about basic bryophyte biology, some simple but necessary microtechniques in the lab, and the basic structure of bryophytes along with taxonomically useful characteristics. The second day, after a morning lab session, the class will caravan to a field site and learn to identify major bryophyte groups and discuss and observe their general ecology and evolutionary features. Participants should be prepared to hike up to four miles on Sunday, in possibly wet weather conditions.
February 23-24 • Workshop fee $150/$190
Seaweeds: Details and Data
Kathy Ann Miller
Location: UC Berkeley
Explore the wonderful world of seaweeds without wetting your feet in this special on-campus workshop. In the morning, we will work with fresh, local material and herbarium specimens to understand the unique anatomical and morphological features of seaweeds, many of which are helpful for identifying species. You will learn how to prepare specimens for microscopy, including hand sections and whole mounts. You will see cells, tissues, and reproductive structures, in living color.
In the afternoon, we will use computers to explore the University Herbarium's extensive digital resources, including our current Seaweed Digitization Project, which focuses on west coast seaweed species. Find out how we are archiving images of specimens, and their locality and collection data, and how you can retrieve information online. If all this appeals, you may be interested in further training to enable you to contribute to our databasing efforts from the comfort of your own home.
Some familiarity with seaweeds is a bonus; curiosity about seaweeds, microscopes, and collections is a prerequisite.
March 16 • Workshop fee $115/$155
Spring Flora of Anza-Borrego State Park Workshop full: wait list only
Jon P. Rebman
Location: Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center
Explore desert dunes, rock flats, and mountains of southern California in Anza-Borrego State Park looking for a diversity of wildflowers and cacti. After the spring rains arrive (we hope!), this desert will come alive with color and diversity as annual plants spring forth in all of their splendor and perennials revive for reproduction. This region is part of the Lower Colorado River section of the Sonoran Desert and is home to a wide range of desert plants, including the rare Wolf’s Cholla (Cylindropuntia wolfii), the strange Elephant Tree (Bursera microphylla), and the interesting internal plant parasite Pilostyles thurberi.
This course will include information on desert plant adaptations and the diversity of plants in San Diego County and adjacent Baja California. Based out of the UC Natural Reserve System’s newest field station, we will explore the park and the flora through driving tours and short hikes.
Basic Botany: Introduction to Plant Morphology
Anna Larsen
Location: UC Berkeley
Would you like to learn more about plant morphology and expand your botanical vocabulary? If so, join us for this workshop to explore the morphology of flowers, fruits, and non-reproductive plant structures. Workshop participants will become familiar with the floral characters and terminology frequently used in the second edition of The Jepson Manual and other plant identification guides. This workshop is designed to start at an introductory level and is appropriate for the beginning botanist, nature lover, or avid gardener.
The workshop includes four three-hour sessions over two days. Each session will consist of a short lecture followed by examination of fresh plant material using hand lenses and dissecting microscopes. Microscope experience is helpful but not necessary.
March 30-31 • Workshop fee $150/$190
Basic Botany: Fifty Families in the Field: Introduction to Keying
Linda Beidleman and Richard Beidleman
Are you ready to jump into botanical detective work? With a working knowledge of common plant families, and comfort in using plant keys, identification can be an enjoyable challenge. This workshop introduces students to the flora of the San Francisco Bay area and the techniques used to identify plants of California. Emphasis will be on learning to recognize characteristics of the Bay Area’s “top 20” plant families. We will practice keying plants in the field using a working copy of an updated version of the book Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region: Mendocino to Monterey (Linda H. Beidleman and Eugene N. Kozloff, in prep.), which will be provided to all workshop participants. The nomenclature in this version will be consistent with the second edition of The Jepson Manual.
We will discuss the nature, use, and importance of herbarium collections. There also will be an introduction to reference books valuable for identifying California plants. A general familiarity with morphological terms is helpful, but not necessary, as these will be reviewed during the introductory session. The workshop will be held outdoors (rain or shine). Participants may drive up to 75 miles per day to the field sites and walk up to three miles each day. This workshop will not involve collection of plants. Students must attend all four days of the workshop, because the introductory information will lay the foundation for the rest of the workshop.
Two sessions:
Session One • Location: UC Berkeley and SF Bay Area field sites. Enrollment limited to 14 students.
April 4-7 • Workshop full: wait list only
OR
Session Two • Location: UC Hastings Reserve, Carmel Valley, and field sites in the Monterey/Carmel region. Enrollment limited to 16 students.
Workshop fee includes lodging and meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. Most participants will be accommodated in twin or bunk-style beds. Space outside the bunkhouse is also available for camping. Showers and flush toilets are available.
April 25-28 • Workshop full: wait list only
Exploring Tejon Ranch Workshop full: wait list only
Maynard Moe
Location: Tejon Ranch
The 270,000-acre Tejon Ranch, in Kern and Los Angeles Counties, is the largest contiguous private property in California and, until recently, was largely inaccessible to the public. It is a region of great biological diversity that lies at the confluence of five geomorphic provinces (Sierra Nevada, Great Central Valley, Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, and Mojave Desert) and four floristic regions—circumstances unmatched anywhere else in California. As such, this area is a haven for pristine vegetation, rare and endemic species, ancient oak trees, and intact watersheds and streams.
In 2008, an agreement was made between the Tejon Ranch Company, who owns the property, and five major environmental groups. In this Ranch-Wide Agreement, up to 90% of the property (~240,000 acres) will be protected through conservation easements and managed by the newly-formed Tejon Ranch Conservancy. The Conservancy currently has easements over 100,000 acres of the Ranch.
Special status plant species, found in the conserved lands on Tejon Ranch, include striped adobe lily (Fritillaria striata), Bakersfield cactus (Opuntia basilaris var. treleasei), Vasek’s clarkia (Clarkia temblorensis subsp. calientensis), Tejon poppy (Eschscholzia lemmonii subsp. kernensis), Comanche Point layia (Layia leucopappa), calico monkeyflower (Mimulus pictus), and others. If the rainfall patterns and weather permits, workshop participants should be able to see many of these uncommon plants.
This workshop will introduce participants to the biogeography and flora of the Ranch. Depending on weather and road conditions, participants may have the opportunity to explore woodland/forest (riparian, juniper, oak, pinyon, Joshua tree), shrubland (chamise, sagebrush, rabbitbrush, buckwheat, goldenbush), and grassland communities. We could see as many as 10 different species of oaks and over a dozen species of Lupinus, Lotus, Gilia, Eriogonum, and Camissonia. Lastly, if we are lucky, we could see California condors flying overhead.
We will explore the Ranch via a combination of car trips (4WD recommended) and moderate hikes of up to several miles on uneven terrain.
April 18-21 • Workshop fee $475/$515 includes campground fees, some transportation, and meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. Lodging is in a developed campground with vault toilets and potable water. Flush toilets are available nearby.
Botany and Big Horn Sheep* of the Whitewater/Mission Creek Preserves
Tim Krantz
Location: Southeast San Bernardino Mountains
The southeast slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains provide a critical botanical and wildlife corridor linking the floras and faunas of the Little San Bernardino Mountains and Joshua Tree National Park to the San Bernardino Mountains High Country and the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area. Managed by The Wildlands Conservancy, the Whitewater and Mission Creek Preserves comprise an ensemble of more than 10,000 acres, including rare desert riparian and wetlands communities, surrounded by a very diverse flora of Upper and Lower Desert Transition elements. Altogether, the area supports a flora of more than 500 taxa of vascular plants. The area has been seldom botanized, so our work will provide an important, comprehensive botanical survey for the combined preserve area. The area is known to support a number of northern disjunctions, including northernmost locations for miserable spurge (Euphorbia misera) and California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera), and rare endemics such as the ephemeral spotted linanthus (Linanthus maculatus) and the Federal-endangered Coachella Valley milk-vetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. coachellae).
We will stay at the Whitewater Preserve, which offers a relatively luxurious camping setting at the very edge of the wilderness. The Preserve also supports a diverse fauna, including mule deer, black bear, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion.
Participants should be prepared to hike up to eight miles each day at a brisk pace, with moderate elevation gains on uneven terrain in warm—possibly hot—weather. It is recommended that each participant carry at least one gallon of water on hikes.
*Big Horn Sheep sightings hoped for, but not guaranteed.
April 25-28 • Workshop fee $475/$515 includes campground fees, some transportation, and meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. Lodging is in a developed campground with flush toilets and potable water.
Liberating the Wild: An Exploration of Botanical Niches and the Implications for Urban–Wildlands Conservation
Steve Barnhart and Peter Warner
Location: Pepperwood Preserve
California’s diverse flora is generally attributed to its correspondingly complex array of climatic, topographical, and geological influences. At a finer spatial scale, local ecological heterogeneity can provide uncommon or unique niches and refugia for rare and endemic flora, the preservation and maintenance of which are at the heart of numerous local and regional conservation efforts throughout the world. In Sonoma County, straddling the juxtaposition of marine and interior climates, the 3200-acre Pepperwood Preserve cradles a microcosm of North Coast Range topography and plant life—canyons, slopes, and rocky turrets splashed across a melange of geological substrates and soils that support grasslands, chaparral, woodlands, forests, and wetlands, including habitats significant to a number of rare and locally endemic plants, including Napa false indigo, Jepson’s leptosiphon, oval-leaved viburnum, and redwood lily.
In this field course, we’ll explore the Preserve’s botanical diversity and challenge ourselves to accommodate a more holistic ecological perspective—incorporating what we know with what we don’t—on the evolutionary history, the “anthropocene” present, and the future of the native flora. We’ll discuss monitoring and management efforts at Pepperwood, and consider just what humans can or should do in terms of species and ecological conservation, sharing our individual and collective thoughts about the conservation implications for wild landscapes at the urban edge.
What's Eating You? A Natural History of Insect Herbivores
Pete Oboyski
Location: UC Berkeley
Insects and plants enjoy and endure a wide range of interactions including pollination, decomposition, disease transmission, and herbivory. Each of these interactions may exhibit a wide range of complexity, from mutually beneficial to parasitic, in sometimes obvious and sometimes cryptic ways. Examples of herbivores include leaf chewers, sap suckers, wood borers, gall makers, and stem, leaf, and seed miners.
In this workshop, we will explore various types of insect-plant interactions, focusing on signs, symptoms, and types of herbivory. We will begin with a discussion augmented by a slide show and hands-on inspection of different types of herbivores and signs of herbivory. We will then take a short campus field trip to observe herbivory in situ. We will finish with a show-and-tell of the day's observations and a discussion of how individuals can continue to study these fascinating interactions on their own.
This workshop is co-presented with the Essig Museum of Entomology.
May 11 • Workshop fee $115/$155
Polemoniaceae
Leigh Johnson
Location: UC Berkeley
The phlox family, Polemoniaceae, is not large compared to many flowering plant families, yet its ubiquity in the spring and summer floras of diverse California plant communities, combined with impressive variation in floral form and a rich background of scientific inquiry, makes knowledge of this family rewarding. California is particularly rich in Polemoniaceae diversity; 17 of 22 temperate genera and about 70% of the temperate species occur within its borders.
Key features for sight recognition of genera will be highlighted, including features for distinguishing Aliciella and Saltugilia from Gilia, and Linanthus from Leptosiphon. Features that delimit major groups within some of the more diverse genera such as Gilia and Navarretia will also be emphasized. We will work through the keys using freshly collected material (provided by the instructor) and recently pressed specimens that can be dissected as needed, with an emphasis on hands-on keying using the second edition of The Jepson Manual. The phylogenetic basis for the new classification system and some interesting examples of cryptic speciation within Californian Polemoniaceae will also be detailed. Participants are welcome to bring their own collections of Polemoniaceae for help with keying. This workshop will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Friday.
May 31-June 2 • Workshop fee $325/$365
Basic Botany: Introduction to California Plant Families Workshop full: wait list only
Matt Guilliams and Anna Larsen
Location: UC Berkeley
There are approximately 7,600 species of native or naturalized vascular plants in California: how is it possible to learn how to identify them all? Understanding plant family traits provides beginning botanists with a framework upon which to hang those thousands of species names.
This workshop will focus on 10-15 of California’s most common plant families, emphasizing the combination of vegetative and/or floral traits that is diagnostic for each family. On Saturday, lectures will alternate with lab activities using fresh plant material. On Sunday, we will review family characteristics and practice field identification by looking closely at plants in habitat. An important component of this workshop will be an introduction to the second edition of The Jepson Manual, and the use of the family key to identify unknown plants. We will discuss some of the recent changes in the classification of California’s plants and explain why such changes have taken place.
Workshop participants will use a dissecting microscope during the lab sessions: microscope experience is helpful but not necessary. Participants should be familiar with basic plant morphology. This workshop will not involve collection of plants.
June 8-9 • Workshop fee $200/$240
Monkeyflowers in Flux Workshop full: wait list only
Monkeyflowers are one of the showiest, diverse, and most widespread groups within California. But BIG changes have happened to the monkeyflowers that were too late for inclusion in second edition of The Jepson Manual. The genus Mimulus is being split into three genera: Erythranthe, Diplacus, and Mimetanthe. In the past year, seven really cool species have been described as new to science. And, in a set of papers leading up to the Flora of North America North of Mexico Phrymaceae treatment, up to an additional 20 monkeyflowers are being proposed as valid species occurring in California.
This class will explore all of these exciting developments in the context of learning the cohesive species groups (sections) which, once recognized, allow non-experts to master the otherwise difficult monkeyflower key. For those less inclined to focus on taxonomy and keying, the field trips to beautiful areas of Kings and Sequoia National Park will allow for the appreciation of up to 20 species of monkeyflowers and many other southern Sierran endemic plants in their natural habitat. Participants will receive a handout including modified keys, relevant literature, and a working draft of the instructor’s book project on the monkeyflowers of California. Classroom activities will include slide shows to survey both rare and common monkeyflowers from all over the state and keying fresh plant material as a group.
June 13-16 • Workshop fee $425/$465 includes some transportation and meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch. Accommodations will be in a developed campground with vault toilets and potable water. Flush toilets are available at the classroom.
Grasses of the Chiricahua Mountains
Travis Columbus
Location: American Museum of Natural History Southwestern Research Station, Portal, Arizona
If you have taken the Poaceae workshop on the UC Berkeley campus, and are ready for new challenges in the grass family, then this is the workshop for you. Located in the Basin and Range province, the Chiricahua Mountains are one of several "sky islands" surrounded by vast grasslands. Covering 607 square miles, the mountains reach a maximum elevation of 9,795 feet and contain floral elements from four major ecosystems: The Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, the Rocky Mountains, and Mexico's Sierra Madre. This convergence results in great diversity. More than 1,000 taxa occur in the Chiricahuas, 100 of which are in Poaceae.
Students of California's flora will be most familiar with grasses in the BOP (Bambusoideae, Oryzoideae, and Pooideae) clade. The Chiricahuas are also rich in grasses from the PACC (Panicoideae, Arundinoideae, Chloridoideae, and Centothecoideae) clade. Also known as 'warm-season" grasses, these taxa can grow in arid environments and higher temperatures, often taking the form of bunchgrass. We'll focus on the warm-season grasses through a mixture of classroom presentations, lab work, and field excursions. Almost half of the taxa in the Chiricahuas—including Bouteloua gracilis, Muhlenbergia fragilis, and Sphenopholis obtusata—can be found in California, so this workshop will also provide an opportunity for participants to brush up on (or learn) some of California's grasses.
September 5-8 • Workshop fee $575/$615 includes lodging, meals from Thursday dinner through Sunday lunch, and some transportation to field sites. Accommodations are rooms with 2 single beds and a common use bathroom with shower. All linens are supplied. A swimming pool is available for guest use. Camping may be available for those who prefer it; please contact the Herbarium for details.
Trees of the Smoky Mountains
Dean Kelch
Location: Gatlinburg, Tennessee
The forests of the Smoky Mountains are the greatest living expression of the temperate hardwood forest outside of China. Stretching roughly northeast-southwest along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, over 125 tree species and over 200 shrub species are found within these mountains. Although these forests differ profoundly from those of the western United States, someone with experience in western forests will encounter many familiar genera such as oak (Quercus), pine (Pinus), fir (Abies), spruce (Picea), maple (Acer), buckeye (Aesculus), sycamore (Platanus), rhododendron (Rhododendron), and hemlock (Tsuga). In addition, the region supports genera disjunct between eastern North America and eastern Asia, such as hickory (Carya), persimmon (Diosporos), sweet gum (Liquidambar), beech (Fagus), tulip tree (Liriodendron), and magnolia (Magnolia).
Participants will visit eastern Riparian Forest, the rich Cove Hardwood Forest, dappled Hemlock Forest, ridge top Pine-Oak Forest, Beech-Maple Forest, and high elevation Spruce-Fir Forests. About 25% of Great Smoky Mountains National Park is cataloged as Old Growth Forest, so participants should expect to see some trees that are among the larger of their kind. Evening lectures will explore various aspects of the history and biology of the forests.
Participants should be prepared to hike up to four miles each day at a slow to moderate pace, with moderate (occasionally steep) elevation gains in cool to warm weather. Rain is quite possible; raingear and good hiking shoes are advisable. This workshop will begin Thursday morning in Knoxville, Tennessee.
September 19-22 • Workshop fee $775/$815 includes lodging, transportation from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Gatlinburg and various field sites. Participants are repsonsible for their own transportation to Knoxville. Bag lunches will be provided from Friday-Sunday; all other meals will be on your own. We will be staying in the Park Place by the River condos. All condos have a full kitchen, several bathrooms, and access to a pool. Private rooms may be available; please contact the Herbarium for details.
Forest Diseases
Matteo Garbelotto
Location: UC Berkeley
This workshop—a must for anyone with an interest in the preservation of natural ecosystems—describes the most serious infectious diseases that have either been introduced or have emerged in California because of intensive forest management. After an introduction to the ecological role of native diseases, the theory behind biological invasions by destructive pathogens will be reviewed and discussed. The bulk of the workshop will deal with the description of the causal agents, the epidemiology, and the ecological impacts of the most important forest and tree diseases in California, including but not limited to: White pine blister rust, Sudden Oak Death, Dutch Elm Disease, Pine Pitch Canker, and Annosum root rot. Students will learn not only the biology of the pathogens, but also how to identify symptoms and the impacts of all important diseases already broadly established in California. For each disease, valid disease control practices will be discussed.
We will split our time between the classroom and local field sites, where we will see some of these forest diseases first-hand.
October 26-27 • Workshop fee $200/$240
Amphibians and Reptiles of the San Francisco Bay Area
Michelle S. Koo and Carol Spencer
Location: UC Berkeley and Bay Area Field Sites
From gopher snakes to slender salamanders, our backyards and local parks are home to a diverse array of reptiles and amphibians. This workshop will introduce participants to the life history, identification, and conservation of our local snakes, lizards, salamanders, toads, frogs, and newts. We’ll spend all day Saturday in the classroom, alternating lectures on natural history and global biodiversity of amphibians with lab activities using live animals and preserved specimens. Participants will learn how to use online resources such as AmphibiaWeb and mobile apps to identify species and track and share their sightings. On Sunday, we will visit the Crystal Springs Watershed (a hidden and well preserved gem that is not open to the public) to look for amphibians and reptiles in the field. This field excursion will provide an excellent opportunity to see a variety of habitats, while we observe and record our native species of frogs, salamanders, lizards, and snakes. Be prepared for wet conditions depending on weather.
This workshop is co-presented with the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. A portion of the proceeds from this workshop will support AmphibiaWeb.
November 16-17 • Workshop fee $200/$240
About Our Instructors |
Stephen J. Barnhart instructed for 37 years at Santa Rosa Junior College in biology, botany, and ecology, and is now the Academic Director at Pepperwood Preserve. He has conducted numerous field courses over the past 25 years at the Pepperwood as well as in the Sierra and the intermountain west. Steve maintains a research interest in oak biology and oak woodland dynamics and is currently involved in vegetation consultation and research activities with professors at UC Davis and UC Berkeley.
Linda Beidleman has an M.S. in biology from Rice University. She is co-author of Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region and Plants of Rocky Mountain National Park. She has worked with the California Native Plant Society, especially as co-supervisor for the CNPS East Bay plant nursery. Linda teaches short flora and ornithology courses for the Rocky Mountain National Park and the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies.
Richard Beidleman has a Ph.D. in Biology (Ecology) from the University of Colorado and has taught at the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and Colorado College (now Professor Emeritus). He is a Research Associate at the University and Jepson Herbaria and during the summer he teaches short ecology, ornithology, and flora courses in Colorado. He is co-author of Plants of Rocky Mountain National Park, and his most recent book is California's Frontier Naturalists (University of California Press).
Travis Columbus is a Research Scientist at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Professor of Botany at the Claremont Graduate University. He has a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, where he worked on Bouteloua and related taxa. His current research focuses on the evolution and classification of the grass subfamily Chloridoideae.
Matteo Garbelotto is Adjunct Professor in ESPM (Environmental Science, Policy and Management) at UC Berkeley and is the official Forest Pathologist of the entire UC System. He has taught several classes on California Forest Diseases and has worked extensively in the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, the Transverse Ranges of Southern California, and throughout the California Coast Range. His interests have led him to conduct research in Asia, Oceania, Mesoamerica, Europe, and the entire Mediterranean Basin. He has advised the US and European Union governments on several policy issues regarding the introduction and regulation of plant pathogens and is currently a member-at-large of the European Food Safety Authority.
Matt Guilliams is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Baldwin Lab at UC Berkeley. He is interested in the diversification of the California flora and, in particular, studies the genus Plagiobothrys (Boraginaceae) to examine patterns of evolution in our exceptionally biodiverse and environmentally heterogeneous state. He uses a combination of molecular and morphological data in his analyses and is particularly interested in the incorporation of fossil data into phylogenetic inference. Matt is a native Californian, born in Newport Beach.
Leigh A. Johnson is a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His research interests include cryptic species and species delimitation, phylogeny, phylogeography, comparative morphology, and conservation genetics. He has contributed to the Tree of Life Project, the second edition of The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California, and the Flora of North America project.
Dean Kelch is Primary Botanist at the California Department of Food and Agriculture and an Assistant Researcher with the Jepson Herbarium. He specializes in North American floristics and the systematics of conifers, particularly Podocarpaceae. Currently a resident of California, he received his early botanical training in the forests of Eastern North America, for which he retains an undeniable fondness.
Ken Kellman is a Field Associate at the California Academy of Sciences who has been studying bryophytes since 1995. Ken has published a catalog of the Mosses of Santa Cruz County, California and is currently working on a catalog of the bryophytes of Monterey County. He is largely self-taught, which puts him in the position of understanding how to teach and encourage beginning bryologists.
Michelle S. Koo is the Biodiversity Informatics & GIS Staff Curator at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), University of California at Berkeley. She now manages the Informatics Lab at MVZ, the MVZ Archives and the collections database with other staff curators, while collaborating on several informatics projects such as VertNet, AmphibiaWeb, and the Keck Informatic Engine through the Berkeley Initiative on Global Change Biology. Her current research includes mapping endemism hotspots and regions of rapid evolutionary diversification in terrestrial vertebrates of California, essentially applying spatial analysis to understanding the biogeography and phylogeography of vertebrates. She spent almost a decade conducting herpetological surveys in western USA for the California Academy of Sciences before coming to UC Berkeley.
Tim Krantz is a professor at the University of Redlands in Southern California and is an alumnus of the geography department of UC Berkeley, where he completed his dissertation on the flora and phytogeography of the San Bernadino Mountains.
Anna Larsen is a Research Associate with the University and Jepson Herbaria and has a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from UC Berkeley. Her research interests include ethnobotany and floristics in California and the Pacific Islands. Anna has taught lecture and lab courses in California Plant Life, Medical Ethnobotany, General Biology, and the Biology and Geomorphology of Tropical Islands.
Kathy Ann Miller has loved seaweeds since her first phycology class in 1976. She was trained at UC Berkeley, receiving her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in botany. She has extensive intertidal and subtidal field experience and is particularly devoted to the seaweed flora of California. She works as a curator of seaweeds with Paul C. Silva at the University Herbarium at UC Berkeley.
Brent D. Mishler is Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria as well as professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, where he teaches systematics and plant diversity. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1984. His research interests are in the systematics, evolution, and ecology of bryophytes, especially the diverse moss genus Tortula, as well as in the phylogeny of green plants and the theory of systematics.
Maynard Moe was raised from infancy in Yosemite Valley, received his B.A. (1966) and M.A. (1968) from Fresno State University and Ph.D. in Botany (1977) from UC Berkeley. Maynard is a (partially retired) professor of biology at California State University, Bakersfield. He has botanized and led field trips throughout California, especially in the Sierra and Mojave Desert regions. He has spent the last few decades in Kern County, wrote a key to Twisselmann's Flora of Kern County, and published vascular plant floras of Fort Tejon and Tule Elk State Parks. His primary interests are the floras of Kern County, the Sierra, and desert regions of California.
Pete Oboyski is Collections Manager and Senior Museum Scientist of the Essig Museum of Entomology at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) of remote pacific islands and on the natural history of insect-plant interactions.
Tom Parker is an ecologist who works with plant community dynamics. He was trained at the University of Texas (B.A.) and UC Santa Barbara (M.A., Ph.D.) and is currently a Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University. His research emphasizes plant community dynamics, especially dispersal, seed banks, and seedling establishment. His current projects focus on mycorrhizal fungal mutualists, seed dispersal, and wetland ecology. His research in chaparral forced him to be able to identify Arctostaphylos species, and he's enjoyed them ever since. His serious collecting and systematics work began more than a decade ago.
Jon P. Rebman, Ph.D., has been the Mary and Dallas Clark Endowed Chair/Curator of Botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) since 1996. He has a Ph.D. in Botany (plant taxonomy), M.S. in Biology (floristics) and B.S. in Biology. He conducts extensive floristic research in Baja California and in San Diego and Imperial counties, and contributed taxonomic treatments to the second edition of The Jepson Manual.
Steve Schoenig is the Program Manager for the California Natural Diversity Database and Vegetation Mapping Program at the California Department of Fish and Game. He has been studying and photographing monkeyflowers for the past 30 years.
Teresa Sholars is a professor at College of the Redwoods, Mendocino, where she has instructed courses in agriculture, forestry, and biological sciences for over twenty-nine years. She is Rare Plant Coordinator for the Dorothy King Young Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and a member of the Rare Plant Scientific Advisory Committee for CNPS. She consults with the Mendocino Coast Hospital in plant and mushroom poisoning cases. She has contributed several sections to both Redwood and Pygmy forest management plans and ecological accounts. She was the author of the treatment for the perennial and shrubby lupines for the second edition of The Jepson Manual and rewrote The Jepson Desert Manual key for the treatment of lupines.
Carol Spencer is the Curator of Herpetology at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley.
Michael Vasey is an instructor of biology at San Francisco State University. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and M.A. in Ecology and Systematic Biology from San Francisco State University. Mike has been focusing on the systematic relationships in Arctostaphylos for approximately fifteen years. As part of a team effort, Mike has made major contributions in developing the evolutionary context in which Arctostaphylos can be better understood and in unraveling species relationships within this challenging genus.
Genevieve K. Walden is from Fresno. She has an M.S. in Ecology and Systematic Biology from San Francisco State University, and is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Baldwin Lab at UC Berkeley. Her studies focus on the systematics of Hydrophylloideae (Boraginaceae), glandular trichomes, and digital curation. She led many of the "Jepson Manual 101" clinics in 2012.
Peter Warner holds B.S. and M.A. (Plant Ecology) degrees from Sonoma State University. He currently provides consulting services in botany and plant ecology for public and private land managers, chiefly in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, where he’s worked, walked, and explored for 34 years. His practical experience includes botanical documentation, ecological restoration, vegetation mapping and classification, environmental monitoring, volunteer and community mentorship in ecological stewardship, and biological education. He delights in daily personal discoveries of the new, unexpected, and intriguing in nature.