Hello All,

For my first post, I thought I would talk about my first week out in the field. I am working in  Northeastern California.

One of our field sites with lots of Eriogonum spp.

My fellow intern and I have spent the week out and about, getting familiar with the lay of the land. We have monitored various special plant populations – some Ivesia spp.. and a lot of Astragalus pulsiferae – and despite the drought in our area, we did manage to find some healthy-looking populations.

This week was also exciting because we completed our first Seeds of Success collection. Our mentor showed us a large population of buckwheat. With a closer look, we discovered we had three different species present (Eriogonum umbellatum, E. caespitosum, and E. sphaerocephalum). There was a lot of interesting local variety in flower color – the majority were yellow, but some were orange and others had hints of red or pink. We returned to the site later in the week to collect seed from one of the species, and will come back next week to get some seed from the other species.

So far, it has been a really fun experience! I am slowly becoming familiar with the flora of the Great Basin area. By participating in Seeds of Success and monitoring special status plant populations, I feel like our work is important for current and future conservation efforts and helps us protect this interesting ecosystem. I look forward to getting to spend more time out in the field and encountering other populations of plants!