When: July 19, 2024, 01:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Description: Serpentine outcrops harbor unique plant communities with a high percentage of rare and endemic plant species. The presentation will focus on the diversity, ecology, evolution, conservation, and restoration of plant communities on serpentine outcrops locally and globally, highlighting unusual plants and lichens from serpentine outcrops in California and beyond.

Speaker Bio: Nishi Rajakaruna is a geobotanist interested in how serpentine and other harsh substrates shape the diversity, ecology and evolution of plants and lichens. He has carried out research on serpentine plant communities in California and Maine as well as in South Africa and Sri Lanka as a National Geographic Explorer and a Fulbright US Scholar. He is currently a Professor of Plant Biology at California Polytechnic State University where he teaches General Botany, Biogeography, Geoecology, Ethnobotany, and Plant Taxonomy.