pixel

Melina Matheney

Melina strives to conserve California’s native plant diversity through surveying and collecting California’s rare and common native plants.

As a rare plant technician at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Melina Matheney strives to conserve California’s native plant diversity through surveying and collecting California’s rare and common native plants. Her work mainly consists of scouting and collecting seeds from diverse populations of native plants on public lands which are used for seed banking and restoration projects. Matheney earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Truman State University. Since then, she has worked as a conservation technician in the southwestern region of Utah and as a botany crew member surveying rare plants in northwestern California where her passion for California’s native plants began. Matheney has always had an interest in interspecies interactions with plants, particularly how people across different cultures have used plants in their direct environment. She aspires to continue conserving and learning more about the native flora in California.  

Research interests: rare plant conservation, ethnobotany, soil conservation, botany, ecology, behavioral ecology 

  

Rare Plant Technician