This column was compiled by guest author Thea Gavin who interviewed OCCNPS Vice President Rebecca Crowe for this month’s feature article.

Rebecca Crowe has been a CNPS member since 2007, and an OCCNPS board member since 2019. With a master’s degree (San Francisco State University) in ecology/evolution/conservation biology, she especially enjoys plant identification and propagation, and fruit morphology, all of which nicely dovetail with her job as Collections Manager at the University of California, Irvine Herbarium.

Here are some of Rebecca’s insights into her past, present, and future with California native plants:

PAST

What are some early memories of plants in general, native plants in particular, that have shaped your life?

Rebecca: I don’t exactly remember when I started helping my mom in the yard, but there are many pictures of me at toddler age watering, digging, weeding, and pushing a lawnmower around. (How much I actually helped is debatable.)

Later, in elementary school, I roamed our San Clemente neighborhood with my cousins and friends. Usually a small pack of us would join up to explore the south Orange County coastal canyons; I remember how we’d drape ourselves in long lengths of ice plant and ice plant flowers for Capture the Flag. Huge Canary Island Date Palms served as forts. We explored every canyon from Linda Lane to State Park, although Rivera Canyon was by far our favorite.

I also remember how much I loved making dolls from flower parts. I’d swipe materials from neighborhood front yards—young green iris fruit made great torsos, with other plant parts for legs, heads, and clothes.

As far as native plants go, I’m not sure if I was really aware of what they were and why they were important until a high school science class project, called Project Wild, where a classmate and I adopted a site and made observations on it for the semester. My dad suggested a site he knew about from his explorations in the hills east of San Clemente. It had ancient oaks and coastal sage scrub—and I was convinced it was a mountain lion den.

My dad loved camping and  hiking, so I was certainly exposed to native plants with him. Native plants were the backdrop to many family adventures, such as visiting my great-grandparents in Yucca Valley in the hot summer or taking long hikes in the Cuyamacas, Sierra Nevada, or high desert east of the Sierra. 

Closer to home, I remember enjoying walking upstream along the sandy banks of San Mateo Creek, looking for little fish and nice rocks. Somewhere along the way during these local adventures I developed my (ongoing) fear of rattlesnakes.

It wasn’t until my junior year at Sonoma State University that I really got into native plants. Plant Taxonomy with Dr. Richard Whitkus and environmental science coursework with Dr. Caroline Christian got me obsessed with learning how to know and identify native plants. It was then that I developed a love for keying out plants. 

Do you have any other native plant “heroes” or mentors who shaped your interest in native plants?

Rebecca: Along with Dr. Whitkus and Dr. Christian, Mrs. Bro, my second grade teacher, as well as professors Dr. V. Thomas Parker, Dr. Patterson, and Dr. Mike Simpson. And of course, the current OCCNPS Board!

What is it about native plants that inspires you that you would like to share with others?

Rebecca: The challenge in getting to know them all is exciting to me. Individually, they are beautiful, and it’s fascinating to observe how they all fit together with other organisms to make ecosystems. 

For those who’d like to deepen their knowledge of native plants, try making a plant list every time you hike. Then, spend some time after the hike to sketch out a simple diagram of the plant and/or fill in notes about some of its distinguishing characteristics. This is what has helped me get to know many native plants.

What is a native plant project that you have worked on that is dear to your heart?

Rebecca: I am especially proud of the curation work I have done at the UCI Herbarium. While not strictly native plants, the bulk of the collection is composed of plants and marine algae from Orange County; our earliest OC specimens were collected in the 1960s. I started working part time at the herbarium in 2016. At first, I focused on eradicating insect pests and repairing damaged specimens. Later, I led the effort to digitize all vascular plants, and last year we imaged the final specimen. We will continue to image new specimens as they are made. Lately, I’m proud of the efforts we’ve made in mounting plants from our backlog of specimens.

PRESENT

What native plant projects are you working on right now?

Rebecca: At the UCI Herbarium, I am continuing the re-vouchering effort of nature reserves that are managed by UCI; in OC these include the UCNRS San Joaquin Marsh reserve and the UCI Ecological Preserve. With OCCNPS, I am excited to shift from conservation and plant science projects to working on projects that dovetail with caring for my three-year-old son. I’ll be working with a new team to develop stories and activities for children that will help them get to know OC’s unique plants and wild places—something like “botany for kids” and “ecology stories.”

Do you have any natives planted in your yard?

Rebecca: I do! In the winter of 2020-21, in my postage-stamp front yard, I ripped out almost all of the struggling roses and succulents and replaced them with native plants.

I felt bad removing one thick rose bush, as well as one pomegranate, so those got a pass (for now . . . I think I might replace the rose with a silvery-white-leafed Atriplex).

My front yard theme is “ southern maritime chaparral style,” and I fill it in as I find neat plants at nurseries. The foundation plants include chamise, Quercus dumosa, Ceanothus, various Salvia hybrids, and Elymus condensatus. I sowed annual native plant mixes the first year (20-21), and goldfields, wooly plantain, and gilia still come up. A special plant I’d been looking for was a Comarostaphylis diversiloba, so I was happy to find and plant one last spring.

As far my back yard goes—it’s still a work in progress. We have a row of two-story houses looming over us along the back fence, so I’ve planted screening trees—tecate cypress and Catalina Island cherry—to eventually obscure the hulking mass of suburbia. 

Below the trees is a small slope down into our main yard. On the slope, I sow annual wildflowers and have a handful of coastal sage scrub shrubs. Eventually, I’ll add in more toyon and buckwheat. In the flat of the yard, I have two young elderberries that I’m shaping into an elderberry arch to eventually walk under. A Southern California black walnut will fill the view out of our living room window. I’m also attempting to establish a native grass and forb meadow, but our very active puppy has stalled progress on that front. While the Sporablis is holding up pretty well, the Danthonia could not hang with the new addition of the puppy. We also grow a range of non-native fruit: calamansi, kumquat, pink guava, naval orange, santa rosa plum, raspberries, black berries, blueberries, and australian finger lime.

FUTURE

What are your goals for our chapter?

Rebecca: I am excited to be developing more programs for kids, all kids. As part of our OCCNPS chapter outreach, I’d like to bring programs about native plants to areas and communities that we haven’t yet connected with, throughout Orange County. I’d also like to see our chapter’s Conservation Program grow, as we currently struggle to respond to all the many local native plant conservation issues. 

What OCCNPS activities would you like to encourage others to try this year?

Rebecca: I encourage everyone to check out the OCCNPS garden tour happening in early May. I went last year and loved touring other people’s gardens and hearing from folks about their goals, successes, and failures. This year’s tour should be stellar!

FINAL THOUGHTS

What is one thing you have learned about native plants that you didn’t know when you started this journey?

Rebecca: I’ve loved getting to know the plants of my home county. I didn’t know them very well growing up, but revisiting them as an adult is like catching up with an old friend and deepening the friendship.

Any final native plant tidbits?

Rebecca: When I feel overwhelmed—either with my kiddo, work, or the world in general—I just go out in my back yard and dig a hole to prep for planting a new plant, or do a walkabout, maybe pull a few weeds, and somehow always feel better after being outside with my plants.