Curatorial Assistant Karen Kyutoku heads to grad school!

Karen Kyutoku started volunteering at the herbarium in her senior year. When the pandemic marooned her far from her home island of Shikoku, Japan, upon graduation in June 2020, she was able to turn this problem into an opportunity by enrolling in the STEM-OPT (Optional Training Program), a program for foreign graduates in STEM fields to obtain training in their intended fields that extends their visa for up to two years. With help from the Services for International Students and Scholars (SISS) office, Karen became a full-time curatorial assistant. Because Karen is particularly interested in mosses, her special focus became the curation of our lichen and bryophyte collections, which are now fully online with updated names and housed in new archival packets. Her next project: a master’s program at Cal State Los Angeles with extreme environment ecologist Kirsten Fisher. We already miss you, Karen!

Herbarium Highlights

• Roberto Utrecho has just published three new species of em> (Euphorbiaceae) in Phytoneuron (download PDF of paper here).
  Tragia is a worldwide genus of approximately 150 species (more soon to be published by Roberto), some are used medicinally and others known colloquially as “noseburns” as they have stinging hairs. There are probably good stories behind how that common name came to be. Robert has added many specimens of Tragia to our collection, including the holotype of Tragia moranii, a Baja California endemic named in honor of Reid Moran, former curator of Botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum and and noted collector of the flora of Baja California.
• Read a new The Flora of Bird Haven Ranch published by UCD & herbarium alum Konshau Duman and retired CPD Curator Ellen Dean and Lynette Williams, Andrew Engilis of the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology.
• Read a new Lycianthes publication by Ellen Dean, Jennifer Poore and Hannah Kang
• Read an article posted by CNPS about Teri Barry and the Center for Plant Diversity written by Herbarium Assistant Hannah Kang.
• Read an article Every Plant Has a Story: Ellen Dean and the Center for Plant Diversity
• Take the Herbarium tour with Joe Ditomaso and learn how to identify common weeds using methods employed in professional settings like the U.C. Davis herbarium and also the latest and easiest techniques that employ the use of sophisticated computer programs available to the public.
• Check out Hidden Treasures, a recent article about the Herbarium.
• Why would anyone keep a collection of dead plants? (find out here)
• Read an article about the old Herbarium as it was featured in UC Davis Magazine here.
• View The Plant Detective, a presentation on collecting plants in the field.
• Every Plant Has a Story Ellen Dean and the Center for Plant Diversity
• Plant lists and floras: Click here to view
• The UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity is among 22 California herbaria receiving funding from the National Science Foundation in support of:
  "Capturing California’s Flowers; Using Digital Images to Investigate Phenological Change in a Biodiversity Hotspot" -