Vanishing Lakes: Tulare Lake
The California Central Valley was once a matrix of riparian grasslands and…
Vanishing Lakes: Owens Lake
The drying of Owens Lake is a human-made catastrophe. In 1913, the…
Vanishing Lakes: Salton Sea
Ingloriously described as “the biggest environmental disaster in California history,” and a…
Vanishing Lakes: Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake is a shallow, highly saline, terminal lake situated in northern…
The Tecate Cypress: What a Tangled Web
While working as a digitization intern, one of the most pleasing features…
The Saguaro Cactus: Emblematic Plant of the American…
Specimen StoriesWhat's in a name?
With its tall, columnar shape and upward-bending branches, the cactus we know…
Life in Slot Canyons
Cabinet of CuriositiesExpeditions
Slot canyons are deep channels eroded into rock. They are often ten…
Tumbleweeds
Tumbleweeds aren’t restricted to one species or plant family, but are an…
The Lackluster Major William Rich
Major William Rich was selected to be the botanist on the U. S.…
Where the Gold was First Discovered
Cabinet of CuriositiesExpeditions
Herbarium specimens have been collected at poignant points in history. Major William Rich was…
Western Road Trip: Marble Canyon
The Grand Canyon might be the grandest of canyons carved by the…
Western Road Trip: Grant Grove
When visiting giant sequoia trees, you spend a lot of time looking…
Western Road Trip
In the summer of 1952, recently retired Wabash College¹ botany professor Albert…
Western Road Trip: Crater Lake
It might be hard to believe the Bechtels could take their eyes…
Oro City – A Colorado Ghost Town
Oro City was a gold placer (stream-bed) mining town in Colorado, founded…
The Atomic Specimen
Working with specimens from New Mexico for the Southern Rocky Mountain Digitization…
Typical: Erythronium helenae
Specimen StoriesWhat's in a name?
One of the common names for the genus Erythronium is the dogtooth…
John Torrey’s Trip to California and Colorado, 1872
In July of 1872, John Torrey and his daughter Margaret departed on…
John Torrey on Gray's Peak
In 1861 Charles Parry was the first explorer to ascend Gray's Peak…
John Muir
John Muir (1838–1914) was an influential naturalist and conservationist, and co-founder of the…
Sugar pine
Called "the most princely of the genus" by David Douglas, sugar pine…
The Lemmons: Partners in Botany
Sara Plummer met John Gill Lemmon in 1876 when he came to…
Alice Eastwood
Alice Eastwood was a self-taught Canadian-American botanist. After graduating from high school…