Its been a great 10 months working in beautiful Idaho as an aspiring botanist (native seed intern)! Five of those months were spent camping out in Idahos national forests, scouting for plant populations and collecting seeds! One of my favorite parts about this job was getting to explore the diverse habitats of Idaho and learning new plant species!! We made a total of 70 seed collections from 5 different species (Douglas’ dustymaiden (Chaenactis douglasii), nettleleaf giant hyssop (Agastache urticifolia), silverleaf phacelia (Phacelia hastata), showy fleabane (Erigeron speciosus) and hoary tansyaster (Machaeranthera canescens).These species were chosen for their benefit to sage grouse chicks and pollinators. In addition, these plants have wide distributions throughout the Intermountain Region, growing in a variety of habitats from low elevation desert scrub to subalpine dry meadows. Not only did I get to find the populations, monitor them and collect them, but as I wrap up my internship, I also am participating in cleaning the seed at a nursery and placing the collections in cold storage. I also got to use my GIS skills, making maps of the populations and use our data to model distributions. It’s been an amazing experience, I will miss Boise and the plants!!
Collecting Erigeron speciosus seed in the Sawtooth National Forest!
View from one of our populations in the Salmon-Challis National Forest
My favorite forest (Payette National Forest), this particual area near Hazard Lake was covered in carpets of wild flowers!!
Clarkia sp.
Corallorhiza maculata
Pedicularis sp.