Abstract Detail

Systematics Section / ASPT

Mauz, Kathryn [1].

Flora of the Pacific Slope: Botanical activities of C. G. Pringle in the western states, 1881-1884.

Cyrus Pringle is best known as the founder of the Pringle Herbarium, now at University of Vermont, and for his long and prolific botanizing career in Mexico between 1885 and his death in 1911. This portion of his career formed the basis for a detailed biography published in 1936. Less well known is the history of Pringle’s earliest commissions, consisting of annual trips to the western deserts and west coast from 1881 through 1884. Despite that he collected the types of numerous vascular plants, bryophytes, and even some algae, lichens, and fungi during these travels, and that he regularly distributed sets of his plants to herbaria around the world, his work during this time frame has never been synthesized. An extensive literature review and herbarium research now underway have been employed to reconstruct his itinerary and catalogue. Several hundred plant species are so far represented, drawn from landscapes ranging from the Sky Islands of southern Arizona, to the lower Sonoran and Mohave Deserts. On the Pacific coast, Pringle ranged from Ensenada, Baja California, to Vancouver, Washington, and collected for two summers in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, including Mount Shasta and its vicinity. Preliminary to the publication of his catalogue, the geographic and temporal aspects of his collecting activities are presented here, accompanied by a summary of his significant historical collections in the context of modern anthropogenic landscape change.

1 - University of Arizona, Arid Land Resource Sciences, 1955 E 6th St #205, Tucson, Arizona, 85719, USA

Keywords:
Natural history collections
western North America
nineteenth century
botanical exploration
anthropogenic change.

Presentation Type: Paper
Session: 24-2
Location: Cottonwood A (Snowbird Center)
Date: Monday, August 2nd, 2004
Time: 4:00 PM
Abstract ID:186