July 2024 | National Geographic Trip 3: Greece, Italy, and Spain
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Our last National Geographic Trip 😢
Oddly enough, this trip was the first one we had planned back in 2020 when Dr. Shawn Abrahams and I were supposed to embark on our National Geographic adventures. However, March 13, 2020, became infamous as the day the United States declared a national emergency concerning the Coronavirus Disease outbreak, leading to flight cancellations. Despite the delay, I believe this trip turned out even better than what we had originally planned. We focused our efforts on the wild C genome species of Brassica in Italy and Greece. Namely, B. cretica, B. incana, B. rupestris, B. villosa, and B. macrocarpa. Greece, Crete - It was both of our first time visiting Crete and our sights were set on finding Brassica cretica. To help our success, we met with Dr. Eri Antaloudaki, the curator of the herbarium, housed at the Natural History Museum of Crete. Next we visited Dr. Panagiotis Sarris at the University of Crete who has led the effort in getting a genome of B. cretica. Together, with their help, Shawn and I were able to successfully find a population of B. cretica! Some individuals were even growing in the road! This was a lifetime highlight for me, after studying this plant for almost 10 years, I finally got to see it's home. Naples, Italy - Up next was finding B. incana. We met with Dr. Giovanni Scopece, a professor at the University of Naples Federico II, and his PhD student, Lucrezia. They graciously guided us to several B. incana populations in some of the most beautiful locations along the Amalfi Coast. Additionally, we discovered some Capparis (in the Brassicales) growing near the B. incana populations. Catania, Italy - While still on the search for B. incana, we meet up with Dr. Ferdinando Branca at the University of Catania. His team taught us "the Brassica song" (IYKYK), and with the assistance of Luca, a PhD student in his lab, we located additional populations of B. incana. Palmero, Italy - On the final leg of our National Geographic trip, we set out to find B. rupestris, B. villosa, and B. macrocarpa. According to the IUCN Red List, all three species are critically endangered or near threatened. Our first stop was the herbarium to study the distinguishing characteristics of these plants, which are subtle. While we successfully found B. rupestris, we were unable to locate any B. villosa populations in the areas we searched. The search for B. macrocarpa took us on a ferry to Favignana and a bike ride across the island, where we were thrilled to successfully find this species doing well! Madrid, Spain - In the final week of our trip, we attended the International Botanical Congress in Madrid, Spain. We arranged a field trip to visit our friends at the César Gómez Campo seed bank (BGV-UPM), providing an opportunity for fellow Brassicaceae researchers to learn about this invaluable resource. |
May 2024 | National Geographic Trip 2: Morocco
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Back to Africa to see the Brassiceae of the Sahara Desert.
On our second expedition with National Geographic, we visited Morocco to study desert-dwelling Brassicaceae species. We discovered that camels particularly enjoy feeding on Zilla spinosa, with herders even knowing which specific populations are preferred by the camels. Dr. Shawn Abrahams used the LI-COR equipment they brought along to test the photosynthetic types of Moricandia and Zilla. Throughout this trip, we diligently searched for Schouwia, Eremobium, Foleyola, Farsetia, and the newly described Zahora. Unfortunately, due to a five-year-long dry spell, we were only able to find Eremobium, which is such a cute plant! During our search, we were assisted by local farmers who were incredibly knowledgeable about the region's plant species. They generously devoted hours of their time to help us in our quest. We also managed to find Brassica oleracea, which is cultivated in only two parts of Morocco, specifically in traditional farms within Palm Oasis. It was fascinating to observe these unique farming practices. Finally, Shawn and I traveled to Rabat to visit the herbarium and deposit the specimens we had collected. |
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February 2024 | South Africa + Namibia
A botanists dream! I got to see Welwitschia mirabilis in Namibia!
Before heading to Namibia, I was invited to the University of Pretoria to give a talk at Plant Genomics and Evolution Symposium presented by FABI (Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute). The following two days, along with Drs. Pam and Doug Soltis and Dr. Kenneth Oberlander, I helped to run a workshop on ways to use digital herbarium specimens in research. The next week we all headed to the Gobabeb Research Institute in the Namib Desert of Namibia. There are not enough words to describe how special this place is, so photos will have to do! But if you get the chance to visit, take it! I hope this is just a first of many visits to this amazing desert. Here I helped a PhD student in the Soltis lab collect tissue for her work on Zygophyllaceae. But of course the main plant if interest for me was Welwitschia. Eugene Marais (Research Manager of Gobabeb) and Gillian Maggs-Kölling (Executive Director of Gobabeb) have been studying this amazing species for decades, yet we still know so little about these weird two-leaved Gymnosperms. I also was lucky to sneak in some visits to see some Brassicales species like Moringa! One new plant to me was !Nara or Acanthosicyos horridus. This melon is a valuable food source for the indigenous Topnaar people of the Namib Desert. We got to try some and it kinda tastes like a mango and avocado in one! Dreaming of the day when I return to this place, these plants, and people!
Before heading to Namibia, I was invited to the University of Pretoria to give a talk at Plant Genomics and Evolution Symposium presented by FABI (Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute). The following two days, along with Drs. Pam and Doug Soltis and Dr. Kenneth Oberlander, I helped to run a workshop on ways to use digital herbarium specimens in research. The next week we all headed to the Gobabeb Research Institute in the Namib Desert of Namibia. There are not enough words to describe how special this place is, so photos will have to do! But if you get the chance to visit, take it! I hope this is just a first of many visits to this amazing desert. Here I helped a PhD student in the Soltis lab collect tissue for her work on Zygophyllaceae. But of course the main plant if interest for me was Welwitschia. Eugene Marais (Research Manager of Gobabeb) and Gillian Maggs-Kölling (Executive Director of Gobabeb) have been studying this amazing species for decades, yet we still know so little about these weird two-leaved Gymnosperms. I also was lucky to sneak in some visits to see some Brassicales species like Moringa! One new plant to me was !Nara or Acanthosicyos horridus. This melon is a valuable food source for the indigenous Topnaar people of the Namib Desert. We got to try some and it kinda tastes like a mango and avocado in one! Dreaming of the day when I return to this place, these plants, and people!
July 2023 | Idaho 2023
The search for Dasynotus daubenmirei (Boraginaceae) in The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, the traditional homelands of the Nimiipuu.
Dasynotus is a monotypic genus in the Aminckiinae only known from this location in Idaho. We plan to extract DNA from these collections to figure out how it is related to the other genera in the tribe. Check out more on this cool species here.
Dasynotus is a monotypic genus in the Aminckiinae only known from this location in Idaho. We plan to extract DNA from these collections to figure out how it is related to the other genera in the tribe. Check out more on this cool species here.
October 2022 | National Geographic Trip 1: The UK and Spain
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Cabbages take on many forms!
Brassica crops are some of our favorite market finds like cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, kohlrabi, rutabaga, canola, turnip, bok choy, and napa cabbage. Many of the wild species related to Brassica crops face extinction with encroaching sea levels and warming climates, exacerbated by habitat fragmentation and destruction caused by human development and regional conflict. With funding from National Geographic, Dr. Shawn Abrahams and I set out to document and understand these plants. Our first stop was Jersey, UK to visit Philip and Jacquelyn who are the last family in the world growing Jersey Cabbage, or Walking Stick Kale. The Jersey cabbage was once grown all over the island but is now rarely seen. The stem grows tall and straight and if cut, dried, and varnished it makes an excellent walking stick. Our second stop was the Jurassic coast on the English Channel coast of southern England to learn more about Wild cabbage. We think these plants may not actually be wild, but FERAL cabbages that have escaped from cultivation. At Winspit Quarry, these plants are found everywhere, even growing through the rubble! Our third stop was Madrid, Spain to visit new friends at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. We first visited the César Gómez Campo seed bank. Gómez Campo established this critical seed bank in 1966 (BGV-UPM) to store seeds of native Spanish species and was the 1st in the world to be devoted to the conservation of wild species. Next, we visited the EMMA herbarium, which is basically a library of dried and pressed plants. There we viewed specimens of plants that we have never been able to see before! Our last stop for this trip was Pontevedra, Spain to visit Brassica specialists at La Misión Biológica de Galicia. We learned more about Berzas (Brassica oleracea) and Grelos (Brassica rapa), commonly enjoyed cultivars in Spain! Without support from National Geographic, this work would not be possible. |
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Southern California 2012-2015
Just some general photos of being out and about with Cryptantha and friends.
Chile + Argentina 2014 + 2015
With National Geographic funding to Dr. Michael Simpson, we were finally able to see South American Amsinckiinae species and met the amazing scientists who work on them. Being able to visit plants in these amazing places makes me love my job even more!
