“Pinnacles Jewelflower” – an undescribed species – and other botanical rarities of the Pinnacles
Guest Speaker: Amelia Ryan
Brief Business Meeting
Our December meeting is also our official Annual Meeting to elect a slate of officers for the 2023 Marin Chapter Board of Directors.
We have space on the board and call for additional nominations. If you are interested in serving, please contact Kristin Jakob at 650-608-1274.
The proposed slate for 2023 is as follows:
Co-President: David Long
Co-President: Kristin Jakob
Treasurer: Kate Wing
Recording Secretary: Woody Elliott
Eva Buxton
Paul da Silva
Ann Elliott
Carolyn Longstreth
Laura Lovett
Eddie Robertson
We need a quorum of 10% of Chapter members voting at the meeting, please attend and vote.
Featured presentation
“Pinnacles Jewelflower” – an undescribed species – and other botanical rarities of the Pinnacles
Guest Speaker: Amelia Ryan
7:30 p.m. – Online Zoom Presentation
preregister HERE
Though identified nearly 20 years ago as a probable new species, the “Pinnacles Jewelflower” has languished undescribed. At last, this species is in the process of being described. As an extremely rare endemic species, describing it is the first step to making sure it is preserved. Pinnacles has also been allocated funding to begin systematic surveys of this rare species. As of yet, however, we have only casual observations about the species and no idea of the sizes, number, and extent of populations. In this “preview” talk, we will look at what we know so far about this species, its characteristics, and its preferred habitat, and discuss the distribution and status of other similar species in the area. We will also cover some other interesting and unusual plants found at Pinnacles.
Amelia Ryan is a Vegetation Ecologist at the Pinnacles National Park. She developed a love of plants growing up on 40 acres in western Sonoma County. This led her to study botany at UC Davis and later acquire a MS in Ecology from San Francisco State. She has been working in habitat restoration and resource management for over 20 years, having started at Armstrong Redwoods in the late 90s, then worked at Point Reyes National Seashore on several restoration and endangered plant projects for nearly 14 years before moving to Pinnacles National Park where she has been the Vegetation Ecologist for 5 years. She is a long-time member of CNPS and served on the Marin Chapter Board for 6 years.
