Lois Neff: Nemacladus: history, hunting, and sorting the species

Nemacladus (Campanulaceae), is a genus of 26 mostly desert annuals. I will introduce them through images of the tiny flowers. In the post-apocalypse of my thesis defense and during the Covid-19 quarantine, I decided to put faces to names–that is, I’d read articles by numerous botanists for my study, but knew nothing about them as people. I will present a bit about these botanists and their contributions. Also, I’ve met and interacted via email with several Nemacladus hunters, and will share how they hunt for Nemacladus. This part of the presentation is partly self-serving, as I would love to have more people looking for the plants, and letting me know when they find them! I will convey some details about what I did for my thesis–enough to give you an idea of the complexity and complications involved in studying Nemacladus.

Lois Neff is a master’s student in Dr. Tina Ayers’ lab at Northern Arizona University studying plant systematics and evolution.

Email flagstaffAZNPS AT gmail.com for the Zoom link and password. This talk will not be recorded. The talk will occur August 18 at 7 p.m.

Image: Nemacladus flowers. Image credit: Lois Neff

Arizona Native Plant Society talks are free and open to the public.