Plants collected on this Expedition
| Plant ID | Accession Date | Received As | Origin | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Expedition Stats
New Hampshire
- Event Type
- Expedition
- Collection Type
- Germplasm, Herbarium Specimens
- Arnold Arboretum Participants
- Adam Banks, Adam Beck, Natalie Buckley-Medrano, Giovani Camargo, Wyatt Dixon, Robert Dowell, Andrew Gapinski, Jordan Morgan, Connor Ryan, and Jenna Zukswert
In June 2016, the Isabella Welles Hunnewell Interns made a plant collecting expedition to the White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire. This weekend trip not only yielded collections, but was a wonderful training experience for the young horticulturists.
The interns tested their plant identification skills in the field while searching for the five target taxa Taxon: In biology, a taxon (plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. on the desiderata list. They gained valuable understanding of the importance of detailed documentation, and learned how to properly gather herbarium vouchers Herbarium specimen: An herbarium specimen is a pressed and dried plant sample that is generally mounted on a sheet of paper. Specimens can be stored indefinitely and are used for a wide variety of botanical research. and plant material destined for the Arboretum’s living collections.
Their desiderata list included five species native to the northeastern forests: wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), black ash (Fraxinus nigra), bigtooth aspen (Populus grandidentata), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), and lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium).
The team camped in the southern edge of the White Mountain National Forest near Lincoln, NH, over the weekend of June 10-12. This location provided a convenient jumping off point for their daily excursions in search of there target taxa. During their busy days, they ventured through habitats that ranged from the upland forests near the foot of Mount Osceola to find quaking aspens, to the wetlands near Bethlehem to find specimens of black ash.
The productive trip yielded accessions from all five of their targets. They found three specimens of wild sarsaparilla, four bigtooth aspens, four quaking aspens, one black ash, and one example of a lowbush blueberry. Of these collections, three sarsaparillas (accession 583-2016*A), three bigtooth aspens (accessions 588-2016*A, 589-2016*A, and 590-2016*A), two quaking aspens (accessions 582-2016*A and 586-2016*A), and two lowbush blueberries (accessions 593-2016*A and *B) have found homes on the grounds.
The Collecting Team
Team members included 2016 Hunnewell Interns Adam Banks, Adam Beck, Natalie Buckley-Medrano Giovani Camargo, Wyatt Dixon, Jordan Morgan, and Connor Ryan; Living Collections Fellows Robert Dowell and Jenna Zukswert; and Manager of Horticulture Andrew Gapinski.
