Joined: Sep 28, 2020 Last Active: Oct 11, 2024 iNaturalist
I am a botanist with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation's Division of Natural Heritage, based in Richmond, where my job focuses on rare plant inventory and protection. Learning the flora of the southeast is a never-ending task. I've been focused on the taxonomy of various plant genera over the years, but the Witch Grasses (genus Dichanthelium) have been a constant and sadistic favorite due to the extreme identification challenges they sometimes provide. A few years ago I started to take bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, hornworts) seriously, which is to say I've spent way to much time behind a microscope. I am a co-author of the Flora of Virginia and heavily involved with production of the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora, which maps county-level distribution of the plants of Virginia. I may be into plants now, but it took a long time for me to notice them because I was too busy looking at birds. They are a big part of my life.