Past Meetings

January: Henderson and Reno - No meeting scheduled. Have a Happy New Year, and we will see you in February!  

February 4th: Henderson -  Jeanette Perry, Botanist with Ecological & Environmental Monitoring at the Nevada National Security Site will present "The Current Status of Sensitive Plant Species on the Nevada National Security Site"

February 7th: Reno -  Dominic Gentilcore, PhD candidate at University of Nevada, Las Vegas will present "Checklist of Vascular Plants of Gold Butte National Monument"

March 4th: Henderson -  Erin Eichenberg, Integrated Resources Program Manager with the National Park Service will present "Flora of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Southern Nevada "

March 7th: Reno - Jamey Wilcher, NNPS 2018 grant recipient for research  entitled “Ecology and Genetics of Eriogonum crosbyae Reveal”.  

April 1st: Henderson -  Dominic Gentilcore, PhD candidate at University of Nevada, Las Vegas will present "Checklist of Vascular Plants of Gold Butte National Monument"

April 4th: Reno - Jeanette Perry, Botanist with Ecological & Environmental Monitoring at the Nevada National Security Site will present "The Current Status of Sensitive Plant Species on the Nevada National Security Site"

May 6th: Reno - Since we have no volunteers to host and none of the Reno officers are available on May 2nd, we will postpone the potluck at the arboretum to a later date.

May 6th: Henderson - Jeanne Sharp Howerton, author, historian, 4th generation Nevadan, educator  “The Astonishing Backstory Behind the Discovery and Naming of Primula nevadensis, the Nevada Primrose"

September 5th: Reno - Shannon Swim, NV director of the Sagebrush in Prisons Project will tell us how "Tough Sagebrush comes from Prison"

September 16th (Please note this is the THIRD Monday of the month, not the first due to the holiday and speaker availability): Henderson - Elizabeth Powell, Botanist and Master Gardener will present  " Plant Treasures of the New world: Saints and Sinners"

October 3rd: Reno - Jeanne Sharp Howerton, author, historian, 4th generation Nevadan, educator  “The Astonishing Backstory Behind the Discovery and Naming of Primula nevadensis, the Nevada Primrose"

October 7th: Henderson- Dale Devitt, UNLV Professor in School of Life Sciences and Director of the Center for Urban Water Conservation will present on his talk entitled "Assessing the impact of large scale solar development on desert ecosystems"

November 4th: Henderson - Ka-Voka Jackson, recent UNLV Master's graduate in School of Life Sciences will present her talk entitled "Restoration of areas invaded by ravennagrass (Saccharum ravennae) in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area" 

November 7th: Reno - Charlie Duncan will talk about her project at the Pitchfork Ranch unit of Walker River State Recreation Area.

December 2nd: Henderson - Our Annual Holiday/End-of-Year Potluck. Please bring a dish/dessert/etc. We will convene to celebrate the end of the year and share your best photos of native/unusual plants from 2019 (20-30 best pics/person, please). Compile your photos on a USB drive, and we will project them on the screen for all to view. Also, if you have live/dried plant specimens that you need help identifying, or you have an unusual species that will stump us all, please bring them along. We will also have a native plant seed exchange: bring native seeds that you have (responsibly) gathered over the past year. Coin envelopes / ziploc bags will be provided for folks to take home seeds.

February 7, 2013: Reno - John Weiser, currently NNPS Reno co-chair for field trips. John will give us a program entitled “Natives for a High Desert Garden” and it features locally endemic plants he grows in his dry-land garden. It will definitely interest those of us who desire incorporating more native plants into our own gardens and the necessary horticultural requirements to do so.

March 7, 2013: Reno - Christopher Kopp, graduate student in the Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego and a 2012 recipient of NNPS' Margaret Williams Research Grant for Botanical Research, will present a program on his research entitled "The impacts of climate change on plant species in the White Mountains". 

April 4, 2013: Reno - Erin Hourihan is an Ecological Site Inventory Specialist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Reno. She luckily gets to do lots of field work in her current job and she will provide us with a presentation on her UNR research. Her program is entitled “Climatic controlled recruitment pulses of 4 species/subspecies of Artemisia in Nevada”.

May 2nd – Our offsite garden meeting will be held at the May Arboretum and Botanical Garden in Rancho San Rafael Park at 6pm. Park either in the parking lot at the (north) end of Washington Street, or the parking lot on San Rafael Drive accessed either from Washington Street or Sierra Street and Putnam Drive. The group will gather at the picnic tables just south of the May Museum. Bring finger food and beverages for yourself or to share. We will enjoy self-guided visits to the Loring and Margaret Williams Memorial Garden, the xeriscape garden, and other nearby garden areas. The park closes at dusk.

September 5th - Barbara Ertter, Curator Emeritus, Jepson Herbarium, UC, is now living in Idaho. She will give a talk entitled "Plants and Peshmerga: Botanizing in Iraqi Kurdistan."

Southern Nevada

February 4, 2013: Henderson - We will accept and discuss nominations for a replacement for our Program Coordinator as well as upcoming presentations.  We will also discuss 2013 field trips with Jim Boone.  Rob Smith, graduate student in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas will present his thesis work.  His thesis abstract:

As wildfires in the Mojave Desert increase in frequency, extent and severity, the recovery of desert mosses is threatened by changes that impact dispersal, soil-bank storage and colonization, making this a timely issue for botanists and resource managers in addition to the general public. This presentation will explore the role of dispersal in maintaining diversity in non-vascular plant communities along gradients of elevation and wildfire disturbance at Red Rock Canyon, and will provide insights into the importance of bryophyte conservation in the region.

March 4, 2013: Henderson - Leslie DeFalco, Research Plant Ecologist with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center, will present her recent work on the recovery of the Mojave ecosystem post-fire.

April 1, 2013: Henderson - Dr. David Charlet, professor of Biology and Environmental Science at the College of Southern Nevada, will present some of his recent work in mapping vegetation communities in Southern Nevada. 

May 6, 2013: Henderson - BRING YOUR HAND LENS!!!!!!!!! We will be offering another Plant ID workshop during our monthly meeting.  This year, we will focus on reviewing several plant families that are in full bloom this time of year and then work through a few of the more common species together using the Jepson Desert Manual.  Feel more than welcome to bring that species that has been stumping you this spring.  We can all learn together how that stumper keys out.  If you have the following, please bring along: hand lens, Jepson Desert Manual, and dissecting tools.  We will provide several dissecting scopes, dissecting tools, and other technical keys that are more cumbersome to carry.  

September 6, 2012: Reno - Jackee Picciani, local botanical consultant, will present the evening program titled Churchill Narrows Buckwheat: "Discovery" and Subsequent Investigation. 

September 10, 2012: Henderson - To be announced.

October 1, 2012: Henderson - Doug Merkler with NRCS will give a presentation on some of his recent projects.  Title to be announced.

October 4, 2012: Reno - Dr. Robbin Thorp, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, will discuss his expertise in a talk entitled “Bees: Their diversity and lifestyles”  making an argument for their importance to plants and need for conservation.

November 1, 2012: Reno - Ann Pinzl, long standing member of NNPS and botanist, will give a program on her recent travels to desert regions of southern Africa. Join her for the talk entitled "Maybe not all deserts are that similar? A look at Botswana and Namibia". 

November 5, 2012: Henderson - Julie Thompson with the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition, based in Ely, NV, will present some of their recent projects. Title to be announced.

December 3, 2012: Henderson - Annual holiday potluck and member slide shows!

February 2, 2012:  Reno - Michelle Hunt with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Reno will present "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Schoolyard Habitat & Outdoor Classroom Program".

February 6, 2012: Henderson -Daniel Thompson, Ph.D, Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas will present "The Influence of Host Plant Characteristics on Endemic Butterflies of the Spring Mountains."  An overview of new information about locations of butterfly eggs, larvae, and adults and the ecological characteristics of their host plants.  Case studies of several threatened endemic butterflies of the Spring Mountains will illustrate how key features of host plant distributions and ecology influence butterfly habitat suitability. 

March 1, 2012: Reno - Dean Tonenna, botanist with BLM Carson City District, will give a presentation on "A survey of BLM conservation projects in western Nevada and eastern California".

March 5, 2012: Henderson - Gary Reese will give a presentation on "Endemic Gypsum Badlands Plants on the Middle Red Member of the Moenkopi Formation." 

April 5, 2012: Reno - Jerry Tiehm and Jan Nachlinger will feature a program on interesting plants and habitats in southern Nevada from several trips taken early and late in the 2005 floriferous field season. NOTE MEETING ROOM FOR THE APRIL MEETING. We will meet in Room 104 of the Knutsen Resources Center at 1000 Valley Road. This is one building north of where we have been meeting. Enter from the courtyard on the south side of the building.

April 9, 2012: Henderson - Asteraceae identification workshop - co-led by local members.  We will briefly review the important characteristics to observe in identifying Asteraceae and then work together in identifying a few specimens as a group and on our own.  Please bring any spring specimens that you may like assistance in identifying.  Also, bring a loop and any identification books you prefer to use.  We will bring several copies of Jepson, Intermountain Flora, and Utah Flora as well as other useful identification aides at our disposal. 

May 3, 2012: Reno - Carol and Howard Thomas, past President and past Vice President of NNPS, respectively, will graciously host members at their home and garden in Verdi. They’ve emphasized native plantings including Penstemon and Eriogonum species, cold hardy cacti, alpine rock garden species, and they also have a vegetable garden. Please email them at plantweaver@sbcglobal.net or call 775-345-0161 for directions. Be there at 6 pm with a potluck dish and beverages to share for a fun evening.

May 7, 2012: Henderson - "Succession after Disturbance in the Mojave." Cayenne Engel with the UNLV Applied Ecology Research Group will be describing patterns her research group have observed about changes in the plant communities and soil structure after two major types of distubances: post-fire (over 30 years), and areas that were formerly submerged by Lake Mead.  The focus of the work is to examine the processes for native plant recruitment, concurrent dynamics of invasive species encroachment, and how the altered environment may affect these dynamics.

June 4, 2012: Henderson - Ben Jurard with the UNLV Applied Ecology Reserach Group will present the results of his Master's thesis investigating the longevity of red brome seeds in soil seed banks and the dynamics of seed densities after wildlifes.  His research explored several untested aspects of the seed bank characteristics of red brome (Bromus rubens), an invasive winter annual grass in southwestern arid lands.