During the week of September 3 – 11, iNaturalist is conducting their second annual Gall Week event in which they ask for participation from their greater community to help contribute to their Galls of California project. What is a gall? I’m glad you asked. A gall is basically an abnormal growth of plant tissue formed…
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s horticulture team just returned from a successful trip to Santa Rosa Island to collect seed from the island subspecies of Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana ssp. insularis). Torrey pines are one of the rarest pines in the world, and only occur in two places: on Santa Rosa Island off the coast of…
Last month, I set out to the University of California Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve. The Carpinteria Salt Marsh is 230 acres in total. 120 of those acres are owned and maintained by the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) as an UC Natural Reserve. The other 110 acres are owned and managed by the City…
A forest of black oak, incense cedar, and Jeffrey pine provides shade and fills the air with a woodsy scent on the hike up the mountain. Near the top, these tall trees are replaced by low chaparral shrubs and forbs, which are likely providing forage for black bears and other animals. These were observations that…
Across Santa Barbara, there is a network of gardens found within schools, youth centers, shared community green spaces, and private homes. These gardens, and the communities of people and organizations that tend them, are centers of innovation and collaboration. They encourage community and connection, transform dead spaces into vibrant outdoor classrooms and fight hunger throughout…
For many people, the words “seed bank” conjure images of a cavernous vault nestled deep within a mountain surrounded by permafrost or walk-in freezers the size of warehouses. While most seed banks are not quite as elaborate as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway or the Kew Millennium Seed Bank in England, their contents…
Insect pollinators and other invertebrates have two new allies at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, with the hire of Invertebrate Ecologists: Dr. Zach Phillips and Dr. Sarah Cusser. This brings the number of “bug” scientists at The Garden to four, along with Conservation Technician Kylie Etter and Director of Conservation and Research Dr. Denise Knapp.…
14 Federal and State-listed Rare Plant Species: Santa Rosa Island manzanita (Arctostaphylos confertiflora) Island barberry (Berberis pinnata ssp. insularis) Hoffmann’s rockcress (Boechera hoffmannii) Soft leaved Indian paintbrush (Castilleja mollis) Island rush-rose (Crocanthemum greenei) Beach spectaclepod (Dithyrea maritima) Santa Cruz Island Dudleya (Dudleya nesiotica) Santa Barbara Island Dudleya (Dudleya traskiae) Slender flowered gilia (Gilia tenuiflora ssp.…
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