March 2026

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 […]