Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants of San Francisco
Speaker: Mike Wood
Zoom Reservation Required: Link Here
Long before the digital age of geo-located photos, iNaturalist, Calflora, the Jepson eFlora, and The Jepson Online Interchange, the founders of the Yerba Buena Chapter of CNPS were busy documenting the native flora of San Francisco. Their observations were recorded on hand-written lists on college-ruled note paper, the backs of envelopes, and in the margins of dog-eared copies of the 1958 publication A Flora of San Francisco. When I joined the chapter’s board in 1994, I was in awe of the first-hand knowledge of which my colleagues were guardians. I set out to compile this information into a searchable data set that could be regularly updated as new discoveries were made. It was my wish that this annotated checklist could assist amateur and trained botanists in documenting the remnants of natural plant communities in the city, guide restoration and weed eradication efforts, and motivate citizens and decision makers to take an active role in preserving, protecting and enhancing our natural history. The first edition of the checklist was released in 2010. Having my wings clipped due to the pandemic, this past year was the perfect opportunity to work on a major revision to the checklist. The third edition is now available online for free.
Mike Wood grew up working in the nursery trade in Southern California. He shifted gears to ecology, completing his Master’s Degree at San Francisco State University where he focused on fire ecology, edaphic endemism, and the ecology of the rare Ione manzanita. Recently retired from his 30-year career as a biological consultant, he and his wife have been traveling, exploring the botanical wonders of the world. Taking a short break from their travels, they found themselves “stuck” in Hawaii when the world shut down. It was there that he dedicated his time to revising the checklist.