San Diego Natural History Museum Botany Department

01/05/2024

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=789768509849377&set=a.478810040945227&type=3

Nature and The Nat. We go back a long way together. 150 years to be exact.
2024 is our biggest year yet—and we are celebrating all year!

We have some programs and special offers debuting this month, but we promise the party will last all year.

Here's just a peek at what's in store. ⬇️

🎉 Free Birthday Admission: Visitors can receive free Museum admission on one date of their choice during their birthday month.
👕 Merch-a-Month: Monthly limited-edition nature-centric product releases in our store.
🏛️ 150th Anniversary Exhibit: A new exhibition opening Memorial Day weekend showcasing important moments in our and San Diego's history.
🌼 Nature Garden: A new, native plant garden will bloom to life outside the Museum steps in early summer.
🎥 A new giant screen film: Debuting later this year, a brand-new, 40-minute movie will showcase a year in the life of San Diego's spectacular flora and fauna.

Learn more about how to celebrate our 150th anniversary with us here: https://bit.ly/3tE9l8z

09/18/2023

Here are a few plant pics from Jon Rebman, SDNHM Curator of Botany, during a small hike yesterday in Rose Canyon which is one of San Diego's urban canyons. There are still various amazing flowers out there so get outside and enjoy!

09/08/2023

There is still time to embark on an adventure of a lifetime: explore the Central Desert of Baja California with The Nat!

From October 12-15, explore the magical rugged landscapes of Baja California’s desert with Curator of Botany, Jon Rebman, Ph.D., and Curator of Herpetology, Brad Hollingsworth, Ph.D.

Hosted by Andiamo Travel the trip includes ground transportation from The Nat, hotel accommodations for three nights, all meals, and expert natural history interpretation from our scientists!

The cost is $1,350 per person in double occupancy ($250 single supplement).

Reserve your spot before this exclusive trip sells out! Email [email protected] or call 619-255-0273.

08/28/2023

Observations of the Month: Sweet Peas (Fabaceae)

San Diego Sweet Pea (Lathyrus vestitus var. alefeldii) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/116227628 by Biocowboy

Canyon Sweet Pea (Lathyrus vestitus var. vestitus)
https://sdplantatlas.org/PhotosSanDiego/S05271.jpg by jrebman

Did you know that we have two varieties of Lathyrus vestitus in San Diego County? Both are perennial vines with showy flowers.

San Diego Sweet Pea (Lathyrus vestitus var. alefeldii) is much more common in our county and the flowers are usually bright pink. The banner of the flower is reflexed greater than 90 degrees. Canyon Sweet Pea (Lathyrus vestitus var. vestitus) is much less common in San Diego County and the flowers are paler, usually pale lavender or whitish with lavender streaks. The banner of the flower is reflexed about 90 degrees.

Observations of these two taxa may help answer questions about their distribution in our area and clarify whether there are other characteristics that can be used to distinguish them. Since the color of flowers is often lost when a plant is dried and the position of flower parts such as banners may not be accurately preserved during the preparation of voucher specimens, photographs of living plants that show the color of flowers and the position of the banner are important. So, when you find one of these eye-catching vines, take multiple photos including a side view of the flower to show whether the banner is standing upright or bent backwards.

See Photographing Plants for iNaturalist (https://www.sdplantatlas.org/inat/iNatPhotoguide.html) for helpful guidelines about what to photograph for iNaturalist observations. You can view voucher specimens, maps of collection locations, and find additional information about these plants at the San Diego County Plant Atlas website (https://sdplantatlas.org/).

08/22/2023

04/03/2023

Sharp-Tooth Sanicle (Sanicula arguta) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107161156 by hikingsandiego
Purple Sanicle (Sanicula bipinnatifida) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114084832 by toyonito
Pacific Sanicle (Sanicula crassicaulis) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148220406 by awiese
Sierra Sanicle (Sanicula graveolens) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/44401821 by efmer
Turkey Pea Sanicle (Sanicula tuberosa) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107161422 by madge

Like many others in the Carrot Family (Apiaceae), plants in the genus Sanicula have flowers arranged in a compound umbel. In San Diego County, we have 5 species in the genus, 4 of which usually have yellow flowers and one which usually has purple flowers but rarely has yellow flowers. To tell the 5 species apart, start by examining their leaves. All 5 have divided leaves, but the leaves of each have different characteristics.

Sharp-Tooth Sanicle (Sanicula arguta) has leaves that are palmately or pinnately lobed. As indicated by the common name, the leaf margins are sharply toothed. Sharp-Tooth Sanicle can be found from the coast to the foothills and lower mountain elevations. It is one of the more common of our San Diego County Sanicles.

Purple Sanicle (S. bipinnatifida) is easy to identify if the flowers are purple, but if you happen upon a specimen with yellow flowers, look for leaves that are crowded together, have a slight bluish hue, and are dissected into several broad lobes. The leaf margins are toothed. Purple Sanicle is not found on the immediate coast but is found from near the coast into the inland valleys and mountains. It is also one of the more common Sanicles in our county.

Pacific Sanicle (S. crassicaulis) is named for its thick stem (crassus=thick, caulis=stem). Its roundish leaves are divided into 3 to 5 palmate lobes with toothed margins. Pacific Sanicle can be found from the coast into the lower mountains. It is probably the most common of the 5 species.

Sierra Sanicle (S. graveolens) is the least common of our Sanicles and is only found in the Cuyamaca and Laguna Mountains. Its leaves are divided into pinnate or ternate (3 parts) lobes.

Turkey Pea Sanicle (S. tuberosa) is more common than Sierra Sanicle, but less common than the other species in our county. The species name refers to the plant’s small underground tubers which may also be the basis for “pea” in the common name. Its leaves are divided into many very narrow segments, looking almost fern-like. The stem and leaf petioles of Turkey Pea Sanicle are reddish purple.

Next time you happen upon a sanicle, be sure to examine and photograph the leaves to help determine which species you have observed.

03/21/2023

Help the Nat on iNaturalist
Learn the ins and outs of using iNaturalist and help the San Diego Natural History Museum monitor groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDE) near Borrego Springs. Jon P. Rebman, Ph.D., Interim Vice President of Science and Conservation/Curator of Botany at the museum, will teach how to make good plant observations in iNat and discuss the flora of Borrego Sink and Clark Dry Lake on March 28 at the Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center.
The Nat is documenting the floras of Borrego Sink and Clark Dry Lake as part of a project with the Tubb Canyon Desert Conservancy and University of California, Irvine, to study and monitor the GDEs of the mesquite bosques. iNaturalist observations from the community are an important scientific resource. Using the iNaturalist app is as easy as taking a photo with your smart phone, but a little knowledge makes iNat observations much more valuable for research. Dr. Rebman will present on using iNat and the research project and then take the class outside at the Desert Research Center grounds to demonstrate good techniques for plant observations. In the afternoon, he will lead an optional field trip to Clark Dry Lake. The class and field trip are free and open to the public.
What: Using iNaturalist and the GDEs of Borrego Springs
When: 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 28
Where: Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center
401 Tilting T. Drive
Borrego Springs, CA 92004-2098
Cost: Free
RSVP: Please email Daniel Donovan at [email protected] if you plan to attend.
Download: Download the free iNaturalist app before the training, and to familiar yourself with how it works, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started.

02/21/2023

Here are a few more native plant species form this afternoon in Sandrock/Ruffin canyons of San Diego.

02/20/2023

It is time to start botanizing and enjoying nature in our local urban canyons and open spaces. There is a wealth of diversity within our San Diego metro area. Get out there and enjoy it!

02/10/2023

The Anza-Borrego Desert area is transforming into a botanical wonderland with annuals and perennials starting their blooming period. Here are a few pics from this last weekend. Get out there and enjoy nature!

01/04/2023

11/08/2022

Dr. Jon Rebman, SDNHM Curator of Botany, led a group of volunteer botanists to survey the flora of the Jacumba Wilderness area near Smuggler's Den after recent rains in that region and they found 10 new plant record for Imperial County in the process. It was a very productive floristic trip! Thank you to the amazing volunteers that helped out!

10/31/2022

Palmer’s Plants

Palmer’s Sagewort (Artemisia palmeri) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/124162571 by toyonbro
Palmer’s Grappling-Hook (Harpagonella palmeri)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/117674798 by spifferella

Other than their eponyms, Palmer’s Sagewort and Palmer’s Grappling-Hook have very little in common. They are in different families: Asteraceae for Palmer’s Sagewort and Boraginaceae for Palmer’s Grappling-Hook. Palmer’s Sagewort (Artemisia palmeri) is found in San Diego’s coastal lowlands and in Baja California. Palmer’s Sagewort looks a little like California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica) except the leaves are larger with broader lobes. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, holds an herbarium sheet of a dried and pressed specimen of Palmer’s Sagewort which bears the collector’s personalized label annotated by Asa Gray. This was only 1 out of over 100,000 botanical specimens collected by Col. Edward Palmer, M.D. over his lifetime, but it was the “type” specimen used by Gray to describe the species for science. And it was collected by Palmer right here in San Diego County in 1875. Some sources describe the exact location within San Diego County as “Samuel Valley” based on a difficult-to-decipher handwritten legend on the label. Gray interpreted the writing to be “Jamuel” Valley suggesting the collection location was in Jamul Valley.

Palmer’s Grappling-Hook (Harpagonella palmeri) was collected by Palmer on Guadalupe Island, also on his 1875 trip, and later described by Asa Gray. It falls into the category of “little white popcorn flowers” and is harder to spot than Palmer’s other namesake plant! You can find it from the coast to the inland valleys in San Diego County and in other parts of Southern California and Baja California. On close inspection of Palmer’s Grappling-Hook you can see how the plant got its name. The fruits have prickly lobes that form what looks like a tiny grappling hook, earning the plant both its common name and the genus name which is a diminutive form of “harpago” from the Greek for a hook.

Both Palmer’s Sagewort and Palmer’s Grappling-Hook have a rank of 4.2 on the California Native Plant Society’s Inventory of Rare Plants indicating that they have limited distributions and are fairly threatened in California.

Palmer had many other plants named in his honor—over 200 species and several genera. Thirteen taxa named after Palmer are found in San Diego County. When describing the new genus Palmerella in 1876, Asa Gray wrote that he was dedicating the genus to Palmer “in acknowledgment of his indefatigable and fruitful explorations of the botany of the south-western frontiers of the United States, from Arizona to the islands off Lower California, in which region he has accomplished more than all his predecessors.”

Palmer was a transplanted Englishman who trained as a physician and served in the U.S. Army. He not only made prodigious collections of plants from across the Southwestern United States and Mexico, but also collections of anthropological objects, many of which are held at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), and some of which are featured on their website. Of note is a collection of fiber prepared from Chaparral Candle (Hesperoyucca whipplei) for a horse blanket by Kumeyaay near Agua Caliente which Palmer acquired on his 1875 trip. Palmer has been called the father of ethnobotany due to his contributions to knowledge of plants and their uses by indigenous people.

During his 1875 expedition, Palmer remained in the San Diego area for about three months and in that time collected several thousand plant specimens, 24 of which are in the herbarium at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Palmer’s collecting expeditions spanned many decades and continued until a few years before his death in 1911 in Washington, D.C.

10/06/2022

This week, Jon Rebman gathered a group of Nat associates and CA State Parks staff to search for an interesting little fern in Rancho Cuyamaca State Park that hadn't been documented here since 1987! (Spoiler alert: They found it!) 🌿

Click through the photos below to see how the story unfurled 👇

09/13/2022

🌿 We're hosting a Nat Talk and book-signing event for a glorious, new guide to the flora of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir on Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 7 PM.
Join our botany team virtually or in person to learn about the botanical wonders—and importance—of Baja California's tallest mountains. 🏔️
RSVP here: https://www.sdnhm.org/calendar/nattalks-and-films/

07/11/2022

Observations of the Month: Chaparral Pea and San Diego Sweet Pea (Fabaceae)

Chaparral Pea by salticidlover https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/106643370

San Diego Sweet Pea by biocowboy https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/116227628

Imagine you are driving along with a friend who is an enthusiastic but new user of iNaturalist. Your friend looks out the car window and says, “Wow, look at those bright pink flowers! I wonder if that could be Chaparral Pea?” You calmly reply, “You mean Pickeringia montana? Not likely where we are—in the coastal lowlands of San Diego County. It’s more likely to be San Diego Sweet Pea (Lathyrus vestitus var. alefeldii).”
A few minutes later, your friend shouts, “There’s another one. You gotta pull over. I’ll just take a quick photo from the car through the windshield and see what ID I get on iNat.” Horrified, you suggest to your friend that if they are going to submit a plant observation to iNat, they should take several photos, one to show the plant as a whole, and close-ups of the flower, both sides of a leaf, and any fruits. You know that accurate identification of plants often requires details that are not visible in distant photos. If care is taken with each observation, it is much more likely that the observation will be useful for science, such as the San Diego County Plant Atlas Project spearheaded by Dr. Jon Rebman at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Not only that, but if it is Pickeringia montana, close-ups showing the hairs are helpful in deciding which variety it is.
Undaunted, your friend shoots a quick photo as you bring the car to a stop, and they chortle as they show you the screen of their phone where the computer vision suggestions for identification include Pickeringia montana. You sigh, watch as they take a few more photos of the plant and then say, “You know, the computer vision on iNat is pretty amazing, but it’s not always correct; remember those are only suggestions. C’mon, let’s take a drive up Otay Mountain. I’ll show you Pickeringia montana and you will see that other than having bright pink flowers, it is very different from this plant. We could also find Pickeringia montana on some of the other peaks in the county, and sometimes in areas where we can also find Lathyrus vestitus var. alefeldii so you need to know how to tell them apart. That way if the computer vision on iNat suggests Pickeringia montana you will accept the suggestion only if the plant in your observation has the right characteristics. Pickeringia montana is a shrub with 2 or 3 leaflets on the stems; if your plant is a vine, with lots of leaflets, it’s not P. montana. ”

San Diego Pea from Otay Mountain Truck Trail, Jamul, CA, US on May 08, 2022 at 12:06 PM by Jorge Ayón

06/24/2022

iNaturalist Class: Recap and Resources
We had a great class on Saturday, June 11, 2022, with about 60 people in attendance to hear Jon Rebman’s presentation on improving plant observations on iNaturalist. Jon showed us how important our plant observations are and why we should strive to make each observation the best that it can be. That means being disciplined in taking multiple photos for each observation—one photo that shows the plant as a whole, close-up photos of the top and bottom sides of leaves, the top and side view of flowers, photos of fruits, and any other special characteristics of the plant. If you have not done so, be sure to visit the San Diego Natural History Museum’s plant atlas website (https://www.sdplantatlas.org/), where you will find the resources Jon discussed in his presentation, including the guidelines for what to photograph, tools for mapping the distribution of plants, photographs of plants taken in the field in San Diego County, and more.
Please be sure that you have joined the San Diego County Plant Atlas Project on iNaturalist and that you have changed your membership setting to allow the curator to see actual coordinates no matter who adds the observation to the project. This is necessary because all observations of vascular plants in San Diego County are added to the project automatically and any sensitive plants have their coordinates obscured automatically. To be useful for science, the actual location of the observation must be available to Jon as curator of the project.
We were fortunate to have Dr. Rebman and Botanist Margie Mulligan spend a Saturday morning with us, generously sharing their knowledge of the plants of our area. Special thanks to Millie Basden and Fred Kramer who helped plan and facilitate the meeting, and to Patricia Simpson, Mark K. James, and Peter Thomas who served as group leaders for the outdoor part of the class. I’m sorry we were not able to accommodate the 15 people on the waitlist. If you missed this class, you may want to watch a video of Jon’s 2021 online presentation, “A Curator’s Guide to iNaturalist” (it’s also a great refresher even if you attended the recent class): https://youtu.be/w51CYaDRwmA.

06/21/2022

Very interesting Nat Talk tonight at the Museum.

Nat Talks are given by Museum scientists and outside experts from around the country who speak on a wide array of topics including the latest in scientific research, history, art, conservation, and the natural world. Lecture topics often coincide with the latest exhibitions at the Museum. Come enjoy...

05/25/2022

Field Class June 11 with Jon Rebman

Now's your chance to learn firsthand how to make the best plant observations on iNaturalist and to have your questions answered by one of San Diego County's local botanical experts! Join San Diego Natural History Museum Curator of Botany and National Geographic Explorer Dr. Jon Rebman on Saturday, June 11, 2022, from 9 to 12 p.m. at Mission Trails Regional Park for a class on perfecting your iNaturalist plant observations. Jon will share tips and tricks for how to make plant observations that are valuable to science beginning with a lecture at 9 a.m. in the Visitor Center classrooms. Following the classroom presentation, participants will divide into groups to spend time in the field in MTRP practicing their skills.

This training is geared towards participants who have experience with iNaturalist, are interested in learning more about the plants and botanical diversity in San Diego County, as well as identification resources. There is no charge for the class but seating is limited. To register, send an email to [email protected]. Registrations will be accepted until all seats are filled. You will receive a confirmation reply.

This presentation is brought to you by the San Diego Natural History Museum with funding from the National Geographic Society.

05/19/2022

Southern California Botanists Field Trip:
San Diego Botanic Garden, San Diego County
Saturday, May 28, (Memorial Weekend)
Trip Leader: Tony Gurnoe, Director of Conservation Horticulture

San Diego Botanic Garden’s collection houses and showcases rare and endangered plants from around the world as a means of ex situ protection for wild populations and to educate visitors about the importance of preserving plant biodiversity. The Garden and its conservation programs have grown significantly over the last several years, with notable projects related to cycads, oaks, and wild relatives of crop plants. This event will focus on the Garden’s work to conserve and study rare species from San Diego County, including a tour through the garden’s projects focusing on documentation, collection, propagation, restoration, and seed banking of rare plant species, visiting our reintroduced Baccharis vanessae occurrence, checking on Quercus cedrosensis saplings in our nursery, and discussing stories of how the garden acquires and manages species such as Rosa minutifolia, Hazardia orcuttii, and Arctostaphylos glandulosa subsp. crassifolia.

If you are interested, please RSVP at [email protected]. Details will be provided before the trip.