Mushrooms fruting in AV

The choice edible and medicinal mushroom Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) is putting on a fantastic showing in the display case on second floor outside AV 207, thanks to the efforts of the students in the Spring 2011 BOT 4330 Cultivation of Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms course.  


The course is taught in the Spring Semester, and these sawdust mushroom blocks have been overwintering since the end of the course in May 2011.  The cool temperature in the basement of the Aven Nelson building has encouraged these mushrooms to begin fruiting earlier than expected.


The course will begin again in January.  Further details about this course can be found in the University Catalog.  Contact Dr. Steve Miller for additional questions.

Floristic Inventory of the White River National Forest and Vicinity

Michael Kirkpatrick

Graduate Student, UW Botany Department

Unlike some of my colleagues, I wasn't born with a lens in hand.  I stumbled into botany en route, I thought, to a career in wildlife management and a desire to work with wolves.  As with many aspects of nature, learning about one leads to deeper, unexpected questions about the whole, and during a volunteer experience at a wolf sanctuary in Colorado I "discovered" my interest in plants.

Ron Hartman and Josh Irwin in the
Colorado River Valley, Mesa County

Subsequently, I've been able to develop my skills and interests in botany through several seasons of work with the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service.  As I became more involved in field botany, and the itinerant lifestyle it requires, I developed a nagging feeling that my work with rare plants was just scratching the surface.  I got to know a select number of taxa particularly well, but I was mostly ignorant when it came to the rest of plant biodiversity.  I also felt that I didn't have a framework to help me make sense of what I was seeing from place-to-place and year-to-year.

These concerns, coupled with fortuitous mentoring by former graduates of the Hartman lab (Brian Elliott, Walt Fertig and Laura Welp-Fertig), set me on my current path.  I can honestly say I've found in Ron Hartman's program exactly what I was seeking those many years, and more.

Over the past two summers, I and other collaborators, including Ron Hartman, Ernie Nelson, and Lori Brummer, have collected over 11,400 specimens from the White River NF and adjacent lands south of the Colorado River.  My study area comprises about 4,200 mi2 in northwest Colorado.  It is located on the west slope of the Rocky Mountains, spanning from the eastern edge of the Colorado Plateau to the Continental Divide, and includes all or part of Summit, Pitkin, Eagle, Mesa, Garfield and Gunnison counties.  It comprises a fascinating geological cross section of Colorado, beginning in the mesa country to the west and passing eastward, and upward, through the Precambrian uplifts that comprise the Elk, Sawatch, Gore, and Front Ranges.

Hiking the Continental Divide through Summit County

Geologic, topographic, and substrate diversities provide a multitude of habitats, ranging from steppes and shrublands to alpine meadows, from rock faces and talus slopes to fens and riparian corridors.  Habitat diversity contributes to great plant diversity, including numerous local and regional endemics.

During the summer of 2010, I found over 50 taxa tracked by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, and many more "rare" species will be tallied before I’m done.  With about one third of my specimens identified, I've counted well over 600 unique taxa representing about 60 vascular plant families.

Over the coming year I’m looking forward to finding out what other surprises await in the 30 or more boxes of specimens remaining.  This curiosity keeps me coming back to the microscope day after day with renewed interest.  Some people read mystery novels; I look forward to the mysteries locked up (for now) inside my plant specimens and what they can tell me (and us) about one small corner of the natural world.

This winter promises to be busy and exciting, watching snow quietly descend over the UW campus while working through my backlog of plant collections, each specimen a unique answer to a complex question of nature.

Floristics in the Uncompahgre Basin and Greater Grand Mesa Area

Lori Brummer

Graduate Student, UW Botany Department

Summer 2011: 10,220 miles driven, 263 miles hiked, and 5,206 plants collected. Area: 4,335 square miles including 1,137 square miles of BLM land and 1,407 square miles of Forest Service land. May 27: 3 sites visited, 150 plants collected, 232 miles driven, 12 hours in the field. Don’t be fooled, these floristics projects are really a numbers game.

Adobe hills near Delta Colorado

Located in west-central Colorado, the Uncompahgre Basin and greater Grand Mesa study area ranges in elevation from 4,640 feet along the Gunnison River to the 14,150 foot summit of Mt. Sneffels. There are many trails to hike, lots of back country roads to explore, and innumerable rocks to flatten tires. The study area contains a variety of habitats including desert grass and shrublands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, spruce-fir forests, and alpine slopes. One of the most interesting habitats in the region is the adobe hill badlands. Derived from a layer of Mancos shale, these otherworldly looking hillsides are home to several endemic species including adobe hills thistle (Cirsium perplexans), Uncompahgre bladderpod (Lesquerella vicinia), adobe desert parsley (Lomatium concinnum), and adobe hills beardtongue (Penstemon retrorsus). Also found on these hillsides and in the surrounding desert landscape is the federally threatened Colorado hookless cactus, Sclerocactus glaucus.

Dominguez Canyon

Two major landforms in the region are Grand Mesa and the Uncompahgre Plateau, both excellent refuges when the temperatures in the lowlands top out at over 100 degrees. Grand Mesa, a large basalt covered mesa that reaches elevations of over 11,000 feet, is covered with spruce-fir forests, aspen woodlands, hundreds of small lakes, high elevation fens, and mosquitoes galore. The west and southwest sections of the study area are bounded by the Uncompahgre Plateau, a distinctive uplift that is part of the Colorado Plateau. Gently sloping up from the valley, it reaches elevations of over 10,000 feet. The plateau is ribboned with a series of canyons, created by down cutting of streams through mostly sedimentary rocks. One of the most beautiful of these is Dominguez Canyon with high, red sandstone walls, seeps that contain Eastwood’s Monkeyflower (Mimulus eastwoodiae), big horn sheep, and hordes of pinyon gnats.

A floristics project is not for the faint of heart – the days are long (this is not a 9-5 gig!), the work physically demanding, most of it solitary, and some of those backcountry roads…! However, with creativity, friends and family can be convinced to help. I owe much of my successful 2011 season to those who joined me in the field including Ernie Nelson, Linda Deeds, and Kim Hansen. Of course, being herbarium manger, Ernie had to help, but that makes him no less fun to be in the field with – especially since he presses what he collects. Non-botanist friends Kim and Linda traveled out from Nebraska to experience some time in the high country. Not only were they better at getting the whole plant than I, but they enjoyed pressing, and even numbered extra newsprint before heading back to the flatlands. The family dogs joined my husband Joe in the field with me on occasion. They were great company, but often more entertainment than help. As Joe has been totally supportive of this venture in more ways than one, he is forgiven for not wanting to help press plants. Botanical assistant of the year, though, has to go to my youngest son, Tyler. A graduate student at Montana State University, he made time in his busy mountain biking schedule to come down and backpack with me into Wetterhorn Basin. A pretty good botanist, not only did he collect the highest part of the basin, but he hauled out about 300 of the 400 plants we collected.

Colorado hookless cactus, Sclerocactus glaucus

The days are shorter now, but the hours are still long. The product of a field season and a half, about 6,500 collections, sit in boxes, most of which await identification. Now, there’s a number I don’t want to think about – especially since another full season is planned on the project! Classes, herbarium work, and commuting from Fort Collins have certainly slowed down the id process. And even though I enjoy herbarium work and identifying the plants I have collected, I find my mind wandering to the adventures of last summer. Flushing ptarmigan and sage grouse chicks, watching a bear and her cub climb a tree, long hikes, and backcountry excursions. What a job – driving down a road just to see what’s there, hiking, collecting plants, all in a landscape that can move me to tears. Is it summer yet?

Revised on: 3 Feb 2012


NOTE: Thanks to Dorde Woodruff for making me aware of the common name change for Sclerocactus glaucus.

A Floristic inventory of the Salmon-Challis National Forest

Josh Irwin

Graduate Student, UW Botany Department

During two summers in east-central Idaho, I saw more mountains and desert lands than many Americans see in their entire lives. This region includes seven major mountain ranges and most of Idaho's top 100 summits. There are hundreds of miles of deep gorges along the Salmon River and its tributaries. To the north, one finds groves of grand fir and alpine larch, while to the south, one finds saltbush, greasewood and desert annuals more typical of the Great Basin. In many areas, local relief is nearly a vertical mile from valley bottom to ridgetop. Whenever I climbed to the top of a ridge or peak, I would look out in every direction where, as far as I could see . . . my study area. Since the project was funded by the Salmon-Challis National Forest, most collections (ca. 11,000) occur on US Forest Service lands. Where species were expected to occur exclusively on low elevation BLM lands, these areas were also surveyed.

Foothills of the Lost River Range;
careful driving is necessary in a 2wd.

All the numbers add up to an enormous project, leaving little time for leisure. The commitment to a floristic inventory is not to be taken lightly; 12-14 hr. work days are the norm both in the field and at the herbarium. I can remember early on in my first semester here at UWyo. I thought to myself, “wow, I just finished identifying 150 plants”. Now, at the time of this writing, I’ve identified around six thousand specimens. After awhile it becomes a routine – though each specimen is unique, the process of identification is a careful balance between speed and confidence. I was not altogether inexperienced when I first arrived at UWyo, but I had never undertaken a project of such a grand scale.

While many refer to a floristic inventory as descriptive science, there are many subtle questions which one could explore with additional time and motivation. For example, what biogeographic factors influence the occurrence and distribution of the flora? what are the patterns of diversity across environmental gradients? Between patches, localities and regions? In such an inventory, one practically expects to discover new populations of rare plants, but there is also the slight chance of finding an undiscovered species.

A Floristic inventory of the Ashland and Sioux Ranger Districts of Custer National Forest

Hans Hallman
Graduate Student, UW Botany Department

June 2009 saw the start of two field seasons of floristic inventory of the Sioux and Ashland Ranger Districts of Custer National Forest in southeastern Montana and northwestern South Dakota, as well as surrounding BLM lands. Having come straight from field work in southern Nevada where I was working in burned landscapes where trees are few and far between, the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests and relatively lush green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) draws of Custer were quite a change in scenery. Overall, ca. 9,000 plant specimens were collected during the summers of 2009 and 2010, with a quick trip back in 2011 to pick up a couple of specimens of coralroot (Corallorhiza sp.) and orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata) in a more identifiable condition than when I first located them in 2010.

A green-ash draw along with grass- and badlands

Interesting habitat types completely exotic to me when I began the project were the numerous badlands that I was able to collect on. Hosting a sparse, yet distinctive, vegetative community, including species such as saltgrass (Distichlis spicata) and greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus), the badlands and their exposed substrate horizons of dark brown to rose to white, and rain-sculpted rills and gullies sometimes 50 or more feet deep, often had me thinking I was on a different planet, especially after a long, tiring day of solo hiking and collecting. A highlight of collecting in one of these habitats was locating a new population of Visher’s buckwheat (Eriogonum visheri) in Montana, only the second population known from the state.

Thanks to tips throughout the collecting seasons from Sioux District Ranger Kurt Hansen, access to certain areas of the forest was streamlined, and several populations of regionally rare plants were located, including lesser yellow lady’s slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum).

Identification of plant material is nearing completion, and I expect to soon start writing my thesis.

Rocky Mountain Herbarium

Summary 

Ronald L. Hartman 

Curator, Professor of Botany

B. Ernie Nelson 

Collections Manager

The Rocky Mountain Herbarium (RM, 1894) with the integrated National Herbarium of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS, 1910) and the associated Wilhelm G. Solheim Mycological Herbarium (RMS; 1929) contains the world’s largest assemblage of plants and fungi from the greater Rocky Mountain region. It contains more than 1,360,000 plant specimens and ranks 10^th in the nation of more than 750 herbaria.

The staff of the RM has developed a philosophy to aggressively inventory the flora of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent plains and basins. This was necessitated by the vast, uncollected or under-collected areas. Such areas are remote and often requiring hikes of 10 to 25+ miles, although many areas are easily reached by vehicle yet remain unexplored. The result has been a relatively “fine grain” sampling in order to capture, based on voucher specimens, species distributions as a whole. In addition, genotypic/phenotypic variation and ecological differentiation are documented. Impressive yet not excessive numbers of collections per unit area (4.4 specimens/mi²) have been obtained. The development of new tools through the decades that place broad-scale floristics into an interdisciplinary framework with biogeography, ecology, and land management is fortuitous. These include computer hardware and software advances, GIS applications, informatics, the Internet, website development, and molecular systematics.

In 1977, the RM initiated this major floristic inventory of the greater Rocky Mountain region. This inventory is now the largest program of its kind in the annals of North American botany. More than 74 (48 by MS students) major floristic studies have been completed; 620,000 new collections have been obtained for the projected Flora of the Rocky Mountains as well as the Flora of North America (16 of 31 volumes published by Oxford University Press; the curator has been on the board of directors since its inception 25 years ago). The maps show the distribution of floristic inventories and the intensity of collecting (figures below). 

Map of study areas where intensive inventories have been conducted by students and staff of the RM. The number of collections range from 8,000 to 20,000 per project. This is contrasted by fewer than 30,000 collections obtained by most taxonomists during a life time. Two additional projects (not shown) on the west slope of Colorado are in progress. Additionally, the entirety of Phillips County is included with Valley County (red) in northeastern Montana.

This is a detailed map of all collecting sites associated with the botanical inventory conducted between 1978 and 2010.  In most cases, a dot represents 50-150+ collections.

The projects completed during the 1990s in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming resulted in the inventory of 79,391 mi². Most importantly, 414 different species of conservation concern were documented at 1,459 sites, most of them new. Additionally, projects completed during the 2000s in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming resulted in the inventory of 89,363 mi² of mostly state and federal lands. During this period, 430 different plant species of conservation concern were documented at 1,678 sites. As many of the taxa collected during the 1990s had been removed from Natural Heritage lists prior to 2000, this is even more remarkable.

In 1991, the RM Plant Specimen Database was initiated. Currently it serves over 700,000 specimen records, 30,000 specimen images, and over 4,000 vouchered field photographs (http://www.rmh.uwyo.edu). In the past two years, the database has been rebuilt using MySQL. The new web interface is among the best in the field. We have a memorandum of understanding with UW Library (Imaging Lab, Digital Collections and Systems Department) for housing and maintaining the website and database.

The RM has received four NSF grants in collaboration with regional herbaria for data basing and more than 70 cost-share agreements with federal agencies for botanical inventory. These inventories have been conducted in 11 regional states. In the past five years $1,066,885 (not including indirect cost) from 39 grants have been acquired for inventory, specimen processing, data basing, imaging, and curation. Several of these are in collaboration with the UW Library and include: 

• Data basing/georeferencing of  >30,000 specimens of vascular plant species from Arizona and New Mexico at RM/USFS. This complements data acquisition on 45,000 recent collections from north central New Mexico (five projects funded separately by the FS and the BLM) and 6,500 collections from selected areas in Arizona.
• The data basing of 18,000 specimens from BLM lands in Wyoming.
• The imaging/data basing of the 6,500 specimens in the Grand Teton NP herbarium (funded by UW/NPS) (http://www.rmh.uwyo.edu/digitalherbaria/about.php). Likewise the processing/imaging of 8,200 collections at RM obtained recently from the Park. We have completed the imaging of herbaria at Bandelier National Monument (2,000) and the Black Hills cluster (Devil’s Tower, Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, Mt. Rushmore – 4,000+ collections). We have an agreement in place to image the herbaria in the NPS units throughout in their Northern Great Plains region.
• The processing/imaging of 35,000 specimens from recent inventories on Shoshone NF.
• The data basing of RM specimens from the Missouri Plateau (eight of 23 counties in Wyoming and major portions of Montana, the Dakotas, and northern Nebraska; funded by NSF through Black Hills State).
• Imaging/databasing >5,000 nomenclatural type specimens at RM (funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. [A type specimen is one on which the description of a species new to science is based; they are critical to understanding the circumscription of a species.

Additionally, a proposal to the National Science Foundation is in preparation. It includes a “virtual herbarium” of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and completion of databasing of Wyoming specimens at the RM. Thus digitization of RM/USFS specimens from Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming will be complete.

Botany researchers find rare plants in the eastern US

During the extensive and productive 2011 field season, Botany Ph.D student Nick Dowie and Prof. Steven Miller were able to locate populations of the non-photosynetheic plant Pterospora andromedea in New York and New Hampshire.

Botany student Nick Dowie collecting samples in summer 2011

This plant, which depends on a symbiotic fungus to provide its carbon and energy (i.e. mycoheterotrophic), is rare and endangered in New England but is thriving in the west. In the east, P. andromedea is solely associated with eastern white pine, but in the west it is associated with many autotrophic tree hosts such as lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir.

The working hypotheses on the decline of Pterospora in the east is that either its disjunct distribution has resulted in a dangerous lack of genetic diversity in a changing environment or that the fungus with which it is associated is genetically depauperate, resulting in an an inefficient symbiosis that cannot sustain the relationship.  

Finding and collecting the rare eastern samples will allow them to test both hypotheses with powerful molecular approaches. Interested in learning more about Dr. Miller's research - visit his lab's website or email him.

Rocky Mountain Herbarium News

Ron Hartman

(Editor’s note: Ron Hartman was first Vice-President of Wyoming Native Plant Society and is Curator of the Rocky Mountain Herbarium.)

            Whether you visit Rocky Mountain Herbarium on-line or on foot, you will notice major changes[1]. We are in a constant expansion mode that has recently translated to a new floor plan and magnitudes more scanned specimens for viewing online.  The current holdings of Rocky Mountain Herbarium (RM) combined with the National Herbarium of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) contain 871,710 accessions; the William G. Solheim Mycological Herbarium (RMS) contains 48,000 for a total of 919,710 specimens, up from 302,000 in 1977. Also, University of Wyoming (UW) - College of Agriculture houses the A.A. Beetle Grass Herbarium (WYAC; 60,000 accessions). The combined holdings of these herbaria rank UW at 15^th of more than 750 herbaria in the nation, 5^th for a state institution. A backlog of over 230,000 collections (identified, data based, with labels) is available for study by researchers. It may appear that we have been gaining on this backlog as during the past 10 years, we have processed over 191,300 specimens. Surprisingly, we have obtained roughly an equal number of collections from our aggressive regional inventories. If we were current on the backlog, the collections would consist of more than 1.42 million plant and fungal specimens ranking UW 10^th in the nation, 3^rd for a state institution. These combined UW accessions represent the largest holding of vascular plants and fungi, by a factor of 3, between the Mississippi and West Coast.

Due to the rapid expansion of the collections, space in existing cabinets has been inadequate. For example, more than 120,000 mounted specimens are just sitting in hopper boxes. Consequently, three rooms on the third floor of the Aven Nelson Building adjoining the RM were renovated this past summer, thanks to Greg Brown, Botany Department Head.  This fall, 176 cabinets (sunflower yellow) were secured from Steel Fixture, Topeka, Kansas.  These, with the inclusion of 32 cabinets that have had other uses, have lead to space for about 416,000 new specimens, or a 40 percent increase in capacity. The specimens as a whole can now be evenly dispersed throughout the old and new cabinets and the mounted specimens in hopper boxes can be inserted. 

          On-line, the scanned images of specimen accessions have mushroomed, including scanned images of the Grand Teton National Park Herbarium (7,500) and of the recently completed thesis on the flora of Grand Teton National Park and Pinyon Peak Highlands (8,200; Kesonie 2009, Kesonie and Hartman 2011).  This makes the Teton County flora visually available to everyone with internet access, even if it is not a simple matter for you to travel to RM or the Park herbarium. 

          You are invited to visit RM any time - on-line and on foot as part of the 2012 WNPS annual meeting in Laramie next June.

Literature Cited

Kesonie, D. 2009. A floristic inventory of Grand Teton National Park and the Pinyon Peak Highlands, Wyoming. M.S. Botany, University of Wyoming.

Kesonie, D.T. and R.L. Hartman. 2011. A floristic inventory of Grand Teton National Park, Pinyon Peak Highlands, and Vicinity, Wyoming, U.S.A. Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas 5(1): 357-388.

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[1] See also: 2009. Rocky Mountain Herbarium at Your Fingertips, Castilleja 28(3): 3-4; and

Schmidt, L. 2010. Gold Standards of the Plant Kingdom Go Online. Castilleja 29(3): 7.

UW PiE and Berry Center open Jackson Ecology Library

Dr. Steve Jackson's numerous contributions to the Program in Ecology (PiE) were recognized last Friday when PiE and Berry Center named their Ecology library in his honor.  


The Jackson Ecology Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Berry Center, is intended to be a shared resource for graduate and undergradaute students who study ecology and biodiversity.  


Each semester PiE and the Berry Center will each add one new book, selected by students, to this collection.  Students can borrow books that are not readily available on campus libraries.


Acknowledging this recognition as "a great honor", Dr. Jackson thanked the faculty, staff and students for their hard work that has resulted in the growth of PIE over the past 10 years. Dr. Jackson is confident that great future lies ahead of PiE and believes that "more of our students graduate and get placed in good postdocs and positions, more papers published with the PiE address, and more people aware of what a good thing we’ve got here... we’re developing a national and international reputation as a top graduate program".

More information about Dr. Jackson's research accomplishments can be found on the Quaternary Plant Ecology Laboratory (QPEL) website.




Donations to the Jackson Ecology Library in the form of books pertinent to ecology students are welcome.  Please contact Ms. Brenna Wanous for further details.

Jan and BJ @ Fall 2011 Graduation Ceremonies

Jan O'Dell and BJ Mitchell were part of the team of UW staff, faculty and students who coordinated different aspects of the fall 2011 Graduation Ceremonies held on December 2, 2011 in the UW Arts & Science Auditorium. Contributions from volunteers like BJ and Jan are essential for the success of events such as this graduation Ceremony.

BJ Mitchell helped the guests to their seats and handed the Program

Jan greeted the guests and directed them to different sections  of the Auditorium