How to end Spring Break – with learning

Jessica Peak and Rebecca Stubbs led another great Jepson Manual 101 clinic yesterday. Both are finishing up their studies at SFSU in Dr. Patterson’s lab, and both are defending their theses very soon [good luck to both of you!]. Jessica studies Calochortus (Liliaceae) [read more at her research website here], and Rebecca studies Polemonium (Polemoniaceae) [read all about it on her research website here]. It was super fun, with a big group of great botany people in VLSB 3030. I learned the difference between a currant [no nodal spines] and a gooseberry [nodal spines], and we played with stigmatrophy in Mimulus aurantiacus (Phrymaceae). Plants do move, sometimes in surprising ways – and not just taxonomically!

I brought in the perennial Phacelia californica (Boraginaceae) for the clinic, and grabbed a few stills of the commute from the first test video run with my brand new GoPro camera. The clinic was busy from set-up to end, and I meant to take photos of the floriferous room and enthusiastic microscope and dissection work, but totally didn’t. Next time! And I am super excited to use this for field work. It is tinier than I thought possible, and so so cool. My usual superlatives are failing me in describing how and why this is incredibly awesome, and the possibilities for my science.