The Ownbey Herbarium’s namesake, Marion Ownbey, is most famous for his research on natural hybridization and speciation in the genus Tragopogon (see SOS # 38). But Ownbey had an interest in the genetics and evolution of several other plant genera, including Castilleja (paintbrushes), Calochortus (mariposa lilies), and Allium (onions). Ownbey named at least 15 new […]
Model organisms play a central role in guiding scientific inquiry. Because we lack the resources to exhaustively study every aspect of all species, we designate a small selection as “models,” on the assumption that discoveries in our models can be applied to non-models. This assumption holds because all life has a common ancestor, and therefore […]
In September 2023, my wife Laura and I were botanizing along the Snake River in southern Asotin County, Washington with Arnold Clifford, a Diné botanist and geologist visiting Pullman from Beclabito, New Mexico. As we were walking along the sandy beach, Arnold and I noticed a loosely ball-shaped herb with narrow, toothed leaves and tiny, […]
Delzie Demaree (1889-1987) was an American botanist whose name is synonymous with the flora of Arkansas and the southeastern United States. Demaree began his career as a plant physiologist, focusing on water relations in trees, but in later years became an avid specimen collector. Over his seven decade career, Demaree collected over 70,000 vascular plant […]