Officers, 2007-2008

President: Don crosby

President-elect: Jim Doyle

Membership Vice President: Vacant

Secretary: Jennifer Petersen

Treasurer: robert rhode

Past President: Deborah canington

Members at Large: eva Bayon, Leslie randall

Student Member at Large: Annabelle Kleist

Ex officio: Dan Potter, Tim Metcalf, ellen Dean, Jean shepard, Kate Mawdsley, Allison chilcott

Contributors: K. Mawdsley, e. Dean, e. sandoval, M. starbuck

Design: susan Gloystein cotterel

Layout: ellen Dean

Lasthenia, the newsletter of the Davis Botanical society, is published by the society in collaboration with the staff of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory and Center for Plant Diversity.

L A S T H E N I A

center for Plant Diversity Plant sciences Mail stop #7One shields Avenue University of california Davis, cA 95616

Uc Davis Mail iD: BTNY

8

DAVis BOTANicAL sOcieTY

With the help of past DBs secretary Jennifer Petersen and Herbarium Director Dan Potter, your email addresses were transformed into a Davis Botanical society listserve in January. Those of you who provided your email addresses for creation of the listserve benefitted by being informed of plant identification workshops and extra field trips that were offered in the spring. Jennifer sent out another request for your email address in late January with our winter mailing but few responded. if you would like to be added to the listserve, please email our membership listserve coordinator, Kate Mawdsley, at wfm-kfm@pacbell.net.

DO We HAVe YOUr eMAiL ADDress?

LASTHENIAN e W s L e T T e r O f T H e D A V i s B O T A N i c A L s O c i e T Y

No. 30spring 2008

i N T H i s i s s U e

in Memorium, John Tucker ............ 1

Tim Metcalf retires ......................... 1

student Grants ................................ 3

climate change and Herbaria ........ 6

Leslie randall Wins Again ............. 7

Annual Meeting .............................. 7

1

iN MeMOriUM: JOHN MAUrice TUcKer

continued on page 4

LOOKiNG fOrWArD WiTH UNreLeNTiNGeNTHUsiAsUM, TiM MeTcALf reTires

continued on page 2

with encour-aging his interest in botany. John had long had an interest in trees, and he obtained a bo-tanical assis-tant position at the garden after course-work at santa Barbara state college and the University of idaho – a position he returned to during summer vacations until 1942. John had thought that he might earn a degree in forestry, but Van rensselaer noted John’s careful horticultural, botanical, and plant col-lecting skills and encouraged him to get a degree in botany instead. With that advice, John continued on to Uc Berke-ley, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate, both in botany, in 1940 and 1950, respectively.

His collection notebooks from his senior year at UcB in 1940 already emphasized oaks, with long entries

John Tucker in 1977 at Shurtleff Ranch, Sonoma County with the rare hybrid of Quercus garryana and Q. dumosa

Marking the end of an era for the herbarium, we lost emeritus Director Dr. John Tucker on July 5, 2008 due to complications of a stroke suffered two weeks earlier. As many of you know, John was an oak expert. He wrote the key and descriptions for the oak family treatment for the 1991 Jepson Manual, and at the age of 92, he finished a new version of that treat-ment this past spring for the upcom-ing Jepson Manual revision. Many people benefited from John’s expertise and sent him oak samples in letters or brought oaks to the herbarium for him to identify. He was generous with his time and always glad to look at any oak from anywhere, because John loved oaks!

John credited Maunsell Van rens-selaer, Director of the santa Barbara Botanic Garden during its early years,

*Tim’s academic career and early years in the Conservatory were profiled in Lasthenia in Fall 1999. Find the story on the DBS website at http://herbarium.ucdavis.edu.

The Botanical conservatory was totally mobbed friday evening, June 6, for Tim Metcalf’s unofficial retirement party. Many DBs members joined faculty, students, former students, volunteers and countless others from the campus and beyond who wanted to honor Tim’s decades of collegial work and loving care of the plants and people of the botanical greenhouses at Uc Davis.

Nine sticky notes framed his computer terminal the morning in May Tim sat still for an hour to talk about his career and plans. in addition to help-ing care for his father (and build a greenhouse in his parents’ backyard), Tim looks forward to returning to campus one or two days a week. And what will he do? Well, Jack Major’s ancient truck, a gift to the greenhouses in 1964, needs weather-stripping; Tim, all-around handy guy, has that on a list of fix-up

The accession stamp that graces all new additions to the Center for Plant Diversity Herbarium

TiM MeTcALf reTires (cONT. frOM PAGe 1)

2

Ernesto Sandoval gives a speech with Tim at his side at Tim’s party on June 6th.

Tim Metcalf with Ted the Titan in 2003. Photo: E. Sandoval

K. Mawdsley

jobs that don’t fit in the budget. The dean may need someone to help with fund-raising for a new conservatory facility—Tim is ready and eager. He’s worked over the years with christian student groups on campus and knows the importance of an understanding “older” person being available to help students think through issues, and he’ll do that too. some fences at home need fixing, and he’ll gradually replace his 17 windows. Travel? When circumstances permit, Tim anticipates volunteering at a Wyclif Association facility in Papua New Guinea for several months. He knows they can use his maintenance and repair skills—and there are some great plants in that part of the world!

Tim reflected ebulliently on the transition from Bis 1c to the new bio-logical sciences course: the conserva-tory hosted over 1000 UcD students in groups of 15 to 20 as both courses were offered simultaneously spring quarter. The planting beds outside the sciences Laboratory Building and its greenhouse

have come to glorious fruition to sup-port the new class.

He praised the skilled and faithful volunteers who have built a “world-class” carnivorous plant collection and an orchid collection far beyond what the staff alone could maintain. UcD’s reputation is out there: the son of a well-known dealer in species orchids will enroll this fall in part because of our holdings.

People who heard Tim speak at his party will not be surprised to know that his best memories and greatest satisfac-tion derives from the students and staff with whom he’s worked. His “team,” Doug, ernesto, and Pamela, is in place and ready to continue growing. Tim called his retirement a “release effect” for them.

As we were winding up, he recalled the happy collaboration of Picnic Days in robbins Hall when “faculty, students, everyone” joined in moving plants from the greenhouses to decorate the hallways. Planting the courtyard of rob-

bins to support the basic botany class, designing the Gifford Garden, doing specifications and designs for the sLB greenhouse and the research core facil-ity are all satisfying memories—but for Tim, it’s the people and the plants.

Just as Tim speaks enthusiastically about the greenhouse staff and volun-teers, many people leap at the chance to talk about him. Warren roberts, superintendent of the Arboretum and a colleague for over thirty years, called Tim “an absolute professional, a horticultural hero [who] knows how to grow everything, especially tropical.“ He cited Tim’s “unimpeach-able character and kindness” and noted that he instinctively practiced modern management philosophy for both people and plants long before this was popular.

Barry rice is a nationally known carnivorous plant expert and long time volunteer at the conservatory. He emailed this comment: “i’ve been volunteering at the greenhouse at various levels for about eleven years. Over that time, Tim has extracted a lot, i mean a lot, of work from me. How did he do it? By using the Three Tricks of Tim. i’ve used these tricks myself when motivating other volun-teers, and they work!

i met Tim during my first week in Davis--i had wandered by the greenhouse, and was looking at the

TiM MeTcALf - AccOrDiNG TO OTHers

carnivorous plants. He immediately encouraged me to start attending the volunteer work nights. (Trick #1: bait the the hook early!)

One of my first nights, surrounded by the mayhem of a squadron of other volunteers chopping, potting, and clean-

ing plants, i asked him for advice on what to do with a certain, particularly overgrown pitcher plant. Tim looked at me with sincerity and gravity, and said, “Hmm. What do you think? i trust you.” This made me feel oh so important. (Trick #2: set the hook!)

Within just a few months, Tim called me over one day and gave me a key to the greenhouse. An honor? Perhaps...but it has ensured that i’ve spent countless weekend and evening hours working on the plants. (Trick #3: reel in the fish!).Tim is a marvel-ous handler of volunteers, and i know we’ll miss him!”

ernesto sandoval came to the conservatory as a freshman student employee almost two decades ago and grew into his current position as cura-tor of the Botanical conservatory. He focused on Tim as a positive thinker, supporter of his staff, and cheerleader for the program. “People gravitate to that energy.” He concluded simply, “To Tim, people really matter.”

To plant people, Tim Metcalf really matters. Thanks, Tim, for everything.

K. Mawdsley

3

sTUDeNT reseArcH GrANTs AWArDeD fOr 2008

K. Mawdsley

Stream monkey flower (Mimulus guttatus)

This year’s strong pool of nine applica-tions produced the first joint project and the first award to an undergraduate student in the history of the DBs stu-dent research Grants. And, echoing the 2007 awards, ecological change due to climate warming again won recognition.

Brian Anacker and Barbara Grimes, both Ph. D. students working with Prof. susan Harrison in the Dept. of envi-ronmental science and Policy, received the e. eric Grissell award. They will use reciprocal transplantation in serpentine and non-serpentine habitat crossed with herbivore exclusion to study the role of herbivores in promoting soil specializa-tion of plants in temperate grassland systems and the effect of herbivory on maintenance of diversity. They will be using paired species of Clarkia, Navarre-tia and Lotus at McLaughlin reserve.

Megan DeMarche, a third-year undergraduate student who interned in Prof. Kevin rice’s lab, was encour-aged to develop her own project on competition within microhabitats of ecologically divergent sister species, Mimulus guttatus and M. laciniatus. she also will use reciprocal transplantation to observe the response to inter- and intra-species competition. Her study is a

receNT GifTs

herbarium endowment Kirk ehmsenBrenda Grewell & stephen Kidnerrebecca WenkAlan Whittemore

In memory of John Tuckerellen Dean & Thomas starbuckJack & eleanor Maze David & caroline PrattJean & scott shepardsamuel statler, Jr.

In memory of Bill McCoyLayne Huiet

DBs student Grant ProgramBrenda GrewellMUsci Natural resource Assessment

Larry &Charlotte Mitich Memorial student Grant FundJames & catherine Murraysuzanne Larla

Conservatory OperationsAnonymous

in Kind GiftsPeter & carolyn TuckerLinda DodgeJudith Jernstedtrobert PearcyMarcel rejmanek

Thank you for your support!

Beautiful clarka (Clarkia concinna)

part of graduate student Jason sexton’s larger project and received the Larry and charlotte Mitich award.

chris Dolanc brings three years working for the U.s. forest service as a vegetation ecologist and awareness of a dataset from a historic vegetation mapping project in the 1930s to his study of recent changes in the structure and composition of subalpine woodland due to climate change. Working with Prof. Michael Barbour in the ecology Graduate Group, chris will resample plots in the northern sierra Nevada to compare stand diversity, structure and composition with findings from the 1930s survey. He will also manipulate the snowpack at test sites for three years (by shoveling, among other techniques) and monitor the effect on tree seedlings and other plants. chris received the Jack and Mary Major award.

DBs congratulates these outstand-ing students and thanks donors to the research grants.

4

John collecting oaks in the Sierra San José, state of Sonora, Mexico in September, 1958Photo: Joe Marshall.

Inside the old Botany Herbarium with its six wooden herbarium cases in the late 1940s.

Above, the Botany Department temporary building in the 1950s. Below: Ernest Gifford, Duane Graham, June McCaskill, Tom O’Neill, and John Tucker in front of the building.

iN MeMOriUM (cONT. frOM PAGe 1)

describing the appearance of each one. He was sometimes frustrated in his attempts to gather more information while out in the field with Ledyard stebbins, his genetics teacher. On one excursion in san Luis Obispo county west of santa Margarita, he commented “stebbins and Walters were so intent in their chase after peonies that i didn’t have time to stop and collect or get more dope on [the hybrid blue oaks that held his interest].”

His Ph.D., under the guidance of Herbert Mason, Ledyard stebbins, and Adriance foster, dealt with the evolu-tion and relationships of scrub oak

(Quercus dumosa) and related species, including hybridization between scrub oak and grey oak (Quercus turbinella), and the parentage of Alvord’s oak (Quercus x alvordiana). On sabbatical leave in 1955-1956, John began to study variation in hybrid oak populations in the southern rocky mountain region, an extremely difficult task.

To say that John’s studies of oak taxonomy were detailed is an under-statement. During his numerous field expeditions, especially within califor-nia and the southwestern U.s., John described oak populations from an ecological, geological, historical, and taxonomic viewpoint. He collected flowers to look at chromosome counts, acorns to analyze their chemistry and viability, and seemingly endless popula-

tion samples to look at leaf surfaces and archi-tecture. everything was documented with careful notes. He collected pollen and crossed oaks and then collected acorns to examine acorn viability and subsequent progeny – techniques more easily applied to annual plants rather than slow-growing trees like oaks. John’s final collections were of shreve’s oak (Quercus par-vula var. shrevei), a spe-cies whose characteristics and distribution had held his interest for more than a decade.

John did not have the luxury of focusing exclusively on research. While still a graduate student at Uc Berkeley, he was hired as Director of what was then the Uc Davis Botany Department Herbarium. At that time the herbarium housed 9,400 specimens in just six wooden cases. in 1951, he initiated an exchange program for trading extra specimens with other institutions, and under his leadership, the collection expanded dramatically. in the mid-1950s, the collection moved to a small temporary building with a metal roof, and John sweltered in the Davis sum-mer heat. in 1961, it moved to a new home in robbins Hall, a space that John designed. Upon his retirement in 1986,

the Botany Department Herbarium was officially named the J. M. Tucker Her-barium to honor his 39 years as direc-tor. The J. M. Tucker Herbarium is now incorporated into the Uc Davis center for Plant Diversity herbarium which includes nearly 300,000 specimens from all over the world in a wonderful, new, temperature-controlled space for which John provided the lead gift.

in addition to directing the herbari-um, John was hired to do plant identifi-cations for Uc cooperative extension, a task he did alone until 1953, when he hired June Mccaskill to help him in the herbarium. John also taught courses in general botany, plant taxonomy, and poisonous plants – courses which served hundreds of students per year. in his first two decades, he also had to collect all the plant material for his courses, something few Uc professors still have to do. He was also very active on committees and took his committee service very seriously.

His exemplary service record is part-ly what led to John becoming Director of the Uc Davis Arboretum for 12 years

5

John Tucker, Ralph Stocking, and Ernest Gifford, at graduation in 1964. Photo: Jack Maze

E. Dean

iN MeMOriUM (cONT. frOM PAGe 1)

(at the same time as he was herbarium Director). This new administrative task was extremely time-consuming, basically another half-time job on top of his other duties. John took the task on, because he loved the Arboretum. He had been involved with the Arbore-tum as a committee member since the early 1950s. in 1962, he established an oak grove near the western end of the Arboretum, planting acorns that he had collected from around the world. Today the Arboretum is home to 574 oak trees, including a number of native califor-nia oak species, and is recognized as a national resource.

During his career, John received numerous honors and awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship in 1955. He was selected as a fellow of the Ameri-can Association for the Advancement

John in one of the Robbins Hall teaching labs in the late 1960s.

of science and the california Academy of sciences. He also was a member of the American institute of Biological sciences, American society of Plant Tax-onomists, Botanical society of America, california Botanical society, interna-tional Association for Plant Taxonomy, sigma Xi honor society and society for the study of evolution.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 46 years, the former Katrine June Petersen (June), son chris, brother

The above series of photos depicts the surprise unveiling of the John M. Tucker Her-barium sign above the Botany Department Herbarium door in 1986. The sign now hangs over the collection room door in the Center for Plant Diversity. The party was advertised as a birthday party for Karl Linnaeus to be held in the herbarium. Others pictured are June McCaskill and Terry Murphy.

robert, and sisters Viola Valenzuela, and Helen reid. He is survived by his daughter, carolyn Tucker, son, Peter Tucker, and grandson carson Mack; sister Mary Kraft; and brothers Glenn Tucker, Ken Tucker and his wife shirley, and stanley Tucker and his wife Marion.

At this writing, a memorial service is planned on August 9, 2008 at the University club at Uc Davis.

in lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to either the Uc Davis foundation Herbarium endowment in support of the J. M. Tucker Herbarium (including John’s extensive oak collection), or the Uc regents J. M. Tucker endowment in support of the Arboretum’s oak collec-tion. Donations may be sent to: Allison chilcott, cAes Dean’s Office, 150 Mrak Hall, One shields Ave., Uc Davis, Davis, cA 95616.

Ellen Dean and John Tucker at his 90th birthday celebration at the Center for Plant Diversity in January 2006.Photo: Helen Kennedy

John in the new John M. Tucker collections area in the Center for Plant Diversity in January 2005.

6

cLiMATe cHANGe AND cALifOrNiA’s NATiVe PLANTs: THe iMPOrTANce Of HerBAriUM sPeciMeNs

K. Mawdsley & E. Dean

Collecting herbarium specimens at Donner State Park, July, 2008. Pictured are Ellen Dean, Michael Bower, and Mark Bibbo.Photo: Margaret Starbuck

A technical paper, dense with footnotes, formulae and references to statistical models, was front-page news all over the country in late June; seven scientists at institutions from North carolina to california reported that, to quote the Davis Enterprise headline, “Global warming could take a huge toll on cali-fornia’s plants.”

Obviously, this information would rivet the attention of plant-lovers, including DBs members. But one aspect of the study is particularly notewor-thy for us—its data were derived from herbarium specimen label data digitized by the members of the consortium of california Herbaria (ccH). The ccH is a project which merges data for nearly a million california plant specimens from 16 herbaria, including DAV (the international symbol for the Uc Davis center for Plant Diversity). The ccH website can be accessed at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/.

The study, “climate change and the future of california’s endemic flora,” appeared in the electronic journal PloS One, 3:5, June 2008 (ww.plosone.org). The researchers combined two differ-ing projections of future carbon dioxide emission levels, two global climate models with higher and lower sensi-tivities to atmospheric greenhouse gas levels, and two plant dispersal scenarios to create eight potential scenarios for the california flora in the face of climate change. for the first time they used statistical modeling to apply their scenarios to data for every species of california native plant for which there

were enough specimens with adequate location information in the database to ensure “robust” statistical reliability; 591 species met this criterion. Addi-tional analysis was performed for 2,069 species with at least two specimens to see whether using the larger group changed the results significantly; it did not.

As the authors note, “Project-ing future changes is a crucial step towards planning for and mitigat-ing the impacts of climate change on biodiversity.” They address this issue through looking at four questions: “Where will endemic species diversity be most influenced by climate change? if species are permitted to move, where will they go? How do we project range sizes to change? Where do we expect future refugia—locations where species at risk from climate change will persist under future climates?”

Many headlines seized the most alarming results from the multiple analyses: if the most extreme changes occurred and species could not dis-perse to hospitable settings, because conditions changed too quickly, routes were cut off by roads or other man-made interruptions, or there was no suitable habitat, as many as two-thirds of the species studied might lose 80% of their current ranges. But the study also reports likely results of less extreme change, and they present the picture of a very different local flora for many parts of the state. “in short, even relatively moderate projections suggest that climate change has the potential to break up local floras, resulting in new species mixes, with consequent novel patterns of competition and other bi-otic interactions.” species may persist, but often not in the same locations. “in general, diversity shifts towards the coast and northwards,” but a number of foothill and montane species go south in the sierra Nevada in order to go up in elevation. The northern sierra Nevada foothills are especially vulnerable. The authors briefly men-tion such management considerations as “human-assisted dispersal” and the importance of “landscape connectivity and potential restoration in the face of

increasing urbanization, land use change, and disturbance.”

This type of study highlights the im-portance of herbarium specimens which provide documented evidence of where and when plant species grow throughout the world. The collecting expeditions that we took this past year have documented many Yolo and colusa county plant spe-cies records, and our expeditions into the sierra Nevada are helping document the plants of the california state Parks. These days when we collect a plant, we have the bittersweet realization that we are docu-menting a disappearing flora that will be greatly affected by climate change.

At the center for Plant Diversity, we are plugging away at “digitizing” (data-basing) the label data of our older cali-fornia specimens and getting those data to the ccH. All specimens that we have labeled since 1995 are already included in our database. However, our older unda-tabased california specimens, especially those from Yolo, solano, colusa, and sacramento counties, are a large gap in the ccH dataset. We started our data-basing project a few years ago with our california oak specimens, an effort partly funded by a gift from John Tucker. This summer we have several undergradu-ates helping us database our california grasses. funding for databasing is very difficult to obtain. if you are interested in providing a gift to get your favorite group of plants databased, please contact ellen at eadean@ucdavis.edu.

Sulfur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum)Photo: Margaret Starbuck

randall’s 2008 prize-winning illustra-tion, is one of the world’s rarest trees, found only on the island of Kauai’i in Hawaii. it is on the U.s. endangered species list.

Judges for the competition com-mented that the winning illustrations were “highly accurate and very informa-tive, showing a wide range of features of the plants with very good technical detail and outstanding composition.”

Botanical illustration combines artistic skill with scientific expertise to illustrate many features of the plant. Leslie observes and measures herbarium specimens, as well as fresh plant mate-rial, when she prepares her drawings. We have obtained loan specimens for her use from other institutions as well.To see a spectacular example, come to the Mccaskill Plant identification Labo-ratory in the center for Plant Diversity and look above the computer terminal to see Lesley’s illustration of Aristolochia gigantea. We are privileged to be able to display it.

7

LesLie rANDALL AGAiN A WiNNer iN iNTerNATiONAL BOTANicAL iLLUsTrATiON cOMPeTiTiON

Leslie’s award-winning illustrations:above, 2007 first prize winnner Aristochia grandiflora; left, 2008 second-place winner Hibiscadelphus distans.

The Botanic Gardens Trust of the royal Botanic Gardens in sydney, Australia, has announced that Lesley randall of Davis has won second prize in the 2008 competition for the Margaret flockton Award for Botanical illustra-tion. Lesley, a staff research Associate in the Plant sciences Department, is currently member-at-large on the DBs Board and in charge of advertising

our events. she won first prize in the competition in 2007 for her illustration of Aristolochia gigantea and previously received a Highly commended award. Hibiscadelphus distans, the subject of K. Mawdsley

Art Shapiro and Timothy Manolis’ new butterfly field guide.

BUTTerfLies Are fOcUs Of ANNUAL MeeTiNG

The Annual Meeting of the Davis Bo-tanical society on May 15 followed tradition; members heard a brief summary of the year’s activities from President Don crosby, approved changes to update the Bylaws, and elected new officers and board members-at-large in short order to get the evening’s featured event.

Uc Davis Professor Art shapiro talked about his observations about trends in butterfly populations and their host plants over his thirty years of surveying sites from the coast to castle Peak in the sierra Nevada. As always, shapiro attracted a large and appreciative audience, a number of whom brought their copies of his recently published Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacrament Valley Regions (Uc Press Natural History Guide series,

2008) for autograph. His report suggested strongly that new users of the guide might have some difficulty finding their prey; many species show greatly diminished numbers. Ques-tions and speculation about the causes of the decline fueled an active post-talk discussion.

Newly elected officers for 2008-09 are: President, James Doyle; President-elect, Kevin rice; secretary, sue Nichol; Treasurer, robert rhode; Vice-President for Membership, Dar-rell Brandon; Members-at-Large: Tim Metcalf, Annabelle Kleist, and Lesley randall. Don crosby will be Past President.

We can always use extra help with Davis Botanical society board duties and membership activities. if you wish to help us, please contact Kate at wfm-kfm@pacbell.net.

K. Mawdsley