Biology of the Small, Ephemeral Geophyte — the "Steer's-head" (Dicentra uniflora, Papaveraceae)

Thursday, October 1, 7:00 p.m.
Rob Schlising

View the presentation below

Biology of the Small, Ephemeral Geophyte — the "Steer's-head" (Dicentra uniflora, Papaveraceae). That is the title of an upcoming talk by Rob Schlising, retired professor in Biological Sciences at CSU Chico, who is currently a board member of Friends of the Chico State Herbarium and who served as a board member of Northern California Botanists during its first 10 years.

Rob will be speaking through a Zoom presentation on 1 October 2020 at 7 p.m. hosted by the Friends of the Chico State Herbarium.

Rob will talk about the field study he and Hal Mackey (also a retired biologist) have pursued now for over 10 years. Focus will be on the phenology and biology of the Steer's-head, mainly observed in three sites in higher-elevation Butte County, California. Details will be presented on both above-ground and below-ground aspects of this smallest species of Dicentra, emphasizing unusual morphological and behavioral aspects of the plants.

The speaker was on the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at Chico State for 31 years, mainly teaching field biology for non-majors, general ecology for majors, and plant ecology for graduate students. He served as major professor for 30 graduate students earning master's degrees there -- most of them in Botany. His main research projects and publications involve the biology of geophytes and the biology of vernal pool plants, including co-editing five books documenting conferences held in Chico on vernal pool plants or on Vernal Pool Landscapes (see a listing of these books at the Chico State Herbarium "Studies from the Herbarium" web page: www.csuchico.edu/herbarium/studies/book-list.shtml).