This article was contributed by guest author Thea Gavin and features Sunny Saroa, an active board member of the California Native Plant Society Orange County Chapter (OCCNPS).

A CNPS member for nearly a decade and an OCCNPS board member for just over a year, Sunny serves native plants and our chapter members in all kinds of ways, including his work with the Plant Science, Public Events, and Communication committees.

Sunny is also the CNPS State Chapter Council Representative for Orange County; his work as a delegate helps CNPS be more effective achieving its mission throughout the state.

Along with volunteering with CNPS at both chapter and state levels, Sunny recently joined the board of Southern California Botanists. His work for Caltrans as an Associate Environmental Planner allows him to use his wide-ranging knowledge in environmental science.

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

Past

Q: When did you become interested in native plants?

A: As a child, I wasn’t particularly outdoorsy and certainly had plant-blindness. However, I was still very curious about the natural world and became interested in conservation through nature documentaries. In college, I majored in Environmental Science at UC Riverside where I was introduced to soil science, which eventually led to an interest in botany, resulting in a minor in Plant Biology.

However, it wasn’t until I took a restoration ecology class that I became passionate about native plants. All in all, I think having field trips to local sites like the Santa Rosa Plateau, Joshua Tree National Park, and Starr Ranch profoundly affected my interest in native plants.

Q: Do you have any native plant mentors who encouraged or inspired you along your learning journey?

A: With certainty, I would say that Andy Sanders from the UCR Herbarium has had a lasting impact on my interest in native plants. Andy led several field trips during the Plant Taxonomy class I took as an undergrad, and I was consistently amazed by his knowledge of the flora of Southern California. I could hand him the most tattered, incomplete specimen and within mere fractions of a second, he would generate an identification for me. I wanted to learn as much as I could to be able to identify plants with such ease and speed.

I would also say that Edie Allen, Professor Emeritus from UC Riverside, put me on a trajectory for a career in restoration and plant conservation. Her Restoration Ecology class opened my eyes to a field I didn’t even know existed at the time. After that, I was able to work in her lab as a student and then as a lab technician after graduating. It was in this lab that I gained the most experience in not only botany, but also plant ecology. The research conducted by her lab and her husband’s (Mike Allen) lab opened my eyes to the intricacies of natural habitats, the interactions between above ground and below ground processes, and the services and functioning our natural ecosystems provide.

Present

Q: Do you have a focus or area of expertise?

A: This is a hard question to answer! I have some expertise across restoration, conservation, and research. I minored in botany in college, so I was able to take some coursework that helped serve as a basis for  my knowledge. With this, I’d say I have quite a bit of experience in surveying/monitoring and plant identification. Despite all this, I’m still learning every day and I’m eager to learn more about our local flora.

Q: What projects have you been working on since you joined the OCCNPS Board?

A: Although I’m still new, I am happy to have been able to help with a number of items with our local chapter. 

I just wrapped up reviewing our O’Neill grant applications with our committee, and I’ve sent out award notices to our recipients. We had a great grant selection committee this year with plant experts from a broad range of backgrounds and specialties. 

This upcoming season, I’m hoping to help out at the UCI Herbarium, join more field trips, and help OCCNPS board member Mel Letterman with some Mini Bio Blitzes.

Ron Vanderhoff and I put together a map of native gardens across Orange County. You can find the map and a list of sites on our Gardening page.

As a member of our Programs Committee, under the tutelage of Bob Allen, I’ve been part of the team that orchestrates our hybrid meetings. This means we can broadcast our in-person meetings online for those who can’t make it in person, broadening our OCCNPS audience.

I’ve been on the board just over a year, but I’m excited to help with an array of projects and make our chapter more accessible to a broader audience.

Q:  What OCCNPS activities do you especially enjoy?

A: I like to try a little bit of everything. I particularly enjoy the hikes as we get to experience and explore areas within Orange County that we may not know about or may not be able to regularly visit. Chapter meetings are exciting as we get to hear about novel research from experts in their respective fields. The best part of all the activities is the community we’ve built around something we’re all so passionate about. I enjoy meeting people, hearing their native plant journey, and learning together.

Future

Q: What are your goals for our chapter and/or the California native plant community at large?

A: We need to be reaching a broader audience both at the local and state level, and developing bilingual or even multilingual resources would be a great start. I’m hoping to work with the State CNPS Chapter Council to produce more resources for the public. I’m excited to join the council, hear the needs of other chapters, and work to find solutions for issues across the state.

Q: Do you have any natives planted in your yard?

A: I don’t have a garden, but I do have a patio with miscellaneous plants, including one lemonade berry that desires to be free from its plastic prison! I am hoping to learn how to keep native plants in containers this year so that I can support biodiversity in the limited space of my patio. For those interested, I know other chapters have hosted speakers (e.g. Barbara Chung) that have presented on their container garden journeys. You can find their videos on some local CNPS chapters’ Youtube channels.   

Q: Any advice or final thoughts?

A: My advice would be about buying and planting native plants: It’s important to source plants locally! While the restoration and conservation community is aware of the importance of sourcing locally, I have yet to see the horticulture community adopt this as a standard. As CNPS works to get native plants into people’s homes, we must also be sure to adopt genetically-diverse and locally sourced plants.

As far as final thoughts: Let yourself be curious, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

There’s a virtually limitless amount of knowledge to be gained, and there’s something for everyone within botany and native plants. 

Plant identification in the field is based on pattern recognition. Once you start understanding the characteristic traits of particular families, you can then start identifying genera, and so on. If you really want to learn, I’d recommend using a dichotomous key to identify plants (e.g. Jepson eFlora), but noticing the differences and similarities between species is a good place to start.

We have a very unique and diverse flora in California. There’s always something new to learn and another region to explore. Plant ecology is key: how these plants interact with one another and with other organisms (e.g. birds, animals, and fungi) and what role these plants play in our local ecosystems. 

After all, as our chapter theme states: “native plants are the foundation of local biodiversity and healthy habitats.”