Alpine habitats are found above timberline on only the highest mountains and are characterized by high winds, cold winters, and short growing seasons. Plants that are hardy enough to grow in the alpine tend to be low-growing (to avoid being shredded by the ever-present wind) and perennial. Many alpine species in the Rocky Mountains, Cascade-Sierras, […]
Back in college as a budding biologist, I remember learning of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the late 18th and early 19th century French scientist widely derided for his hypothesis of evolution based on acquired morphological traits (such as a longer neck in giraffes, or beefier biceps in blacksmiths) being passed on to subsequent generations. Lamarck’s ideas were […]
With their high temperatures and low precipitation, deserts are a tough environment for most plants to survive. Those species that do persist employ one of three strategies. Annuals evade drought by germinating, flowering, and setting seeds in a narrow window of suitable soil moisture in early spring, surviving unfavorable periods as drought-hardy seeds in the […]
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 […]