ENHS Nature Trails May 2004 Article 1

This month's speaker: Dr. Linda Hardison

Every spring I hear the often metaphorical and certainly descriptive names of favorite wildflowers from my friends who know better than I that Baby Blue Eyes and Snow Queen have a jump on most of the other flora of the Willamette Valley. Many of these same friends also know the taxonomic names and a litany of information about these and other flowers of Oregon. Our life here in the Willamette Valley is enriched both aesthetically and scientifically from knowledge of these plants. The Native Plant Society of Oregon (NPSO) has always contributed greatly to our knowledge of the flora of Oregon and many of its members are currently involved in helping to put together a complete flora for the state, both online and in hard copy. As with most projects of this nature, public money is not abundantly available and "Friends" to support the effort have to be organized. In the case of the Oregon Flora Project, "The Friends" include professionals in botany as well as many individuals who simply enjoy walking through a carpet of Baby Blue Eyes in the early spring. This month's speaker, Dr. Linda Hardison, has been Chairperson of the Friends of the Oregon Flora Project, a committee of the NPSO since 1999. In this role she creates awareness through outreach and offers leadership for fundraising. She is also a part-time Assistant Project Manager for the Oregon Flora Project. (She certainly should have official recognition in this regard, as she's married to the Project Manager, Scott Sundberg. And I think it's a scientific fact, that behind every successful man there's a woman.) And we're very fortunate to have this woman speak to us this coming Friday, not only about the Project but also about the plants.

Here's what Linda has to say about her early interests growing up in El Paso, Texas:

I grew up in the Southwest Texas desert, and built forts, caught horned toads and lizards, and gathered bouquets for my mom, who, along with my grandfather, was an incredible gardener. My mother fostered my interest in nature as well as gardening. My knowledge of plants was broadened by my sixth grade science teacher, Mr. Onick, who was excited about everything, and imparted that wonder to his classes. That was where I first appreciated that each plant had a history and phylogeny implicated in its scientific name. Later I enjoyed camping and backpacking in New Mexico which exposed me to the greener parts of the Southwest. Today I still enjoy camping, hiking, gardening, all interests from my youth and still integral to my life today.

My parents were always supportive of my interests in science, and one of my high school science teachers was a wonderful female role model who also encouraged me; thus, I couldn't help but lean toward studies in biology, ecology and plants.

Uncannily, most of my scientific life has been an inexorable slide towards the small. I entered the University of Texas as an ambivalent biology major until I attended summer school at UT's marine field station and fell in love with marine ecology. My first research project was on the grazing of small marine snails (Bittium) on algae epiphytic to sea grasses. I continued my research on the main campus by studying ploidy (*"degree of repetition of the basic number of chromosomes") levels of a cultured marine alga, then worked in a lab researching cellulose synthesis. My first full-time job after graduating was as a lab tech in a plant physiology lab, followed by work studying plant-microbe interactions. I began graduate school doing research on plastid evolution in a chromophytic alga, and ended up with a dissertation on yeast molecular genetics. After that point, the tide began to turn: my postdoctoral work actually involved wheat plants and the genetic mechanism of one of its pathogens. Parenthood led to additional opportunities, and I am back with the vascular plants and helping with the Oregon Flora Project.

Linda's experience in plant physiology moved her closer to working with plants in general, but she credits her practical knowledge of plant taxonomy and her appreciation of the plants of Oregon from a very long and close relationship with Scott Sundberg, "Asterologist" and Director of the Oregon Flora Project. (**There really is a guy out there that can accurately discriminate among all the daisies.)

And what brought you to Oregon Linda?

I was finishing my degree in Seattle when Scott Sundberg began working in the Oregon State University Herbarium, and subsequently began the Oregon Flora Project in 1994. I joined him in Corvallis in 1996 and began a postdoctoral fellowship in the Botany Department at OSU.

At Friday Night's lecture, Dr. Hardison will elaborate on the Oregon Flora Project and its amazing collection of professionals and amateurs, volunteers and staffers who are working to produce a comprehensive set of references on the vascular plants of Oregon that grow without cultivation. "I'll show you some of the beautiful plants that are being included in the four facets of the Oregon Flora Project, describe how the information contained can be applied and enjoyed, and give background and previews of what is happening within the Project."

  Dr. Hardison received her BA and BS from the University of Texas at Austin, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Linda Hardison
 Chair, Friends of the Oregon Flora Project
 PO Box 402
 Corvallis, OR 97339-0402
 (541) 737-4338; 745-5770
 
 For more information on the Oregon Flora Project
http://www.oregonflora.org/index.html
or simply type in "oregon flora project" on Google.

*Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition.
**Scott Sundberg, the current Director of the Flora Project, has submitted online for all to peruse a checklist of the Family Asteraceae, the first completed checklist of a family in the Flora.

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