Notes from Nature volunteers may not have known it at the time, but while they transcribed the label of this small and unassuming plant specimen, they were documenting the occurrence of a rare, threatened species.
Phacelia mustelina, comically called "weasel phacelia" or more elegantly "Death Valley round-leaved phacelia" is an uncommon annual herb of eastern California and western Nevada. The California Native Plant Society ranks this species as rare, threatened, and endangered in California and elsewhere, and indeed, in our database (CCH2.org), only 39 herbarium specimens exist from the past 100+ years.
​This newly rediscovered specimen tells us an interesting story about this unique species. Originating from 1972 in Nye county, Nevada, this specimen was collected as part of a botanical inventory of the Nevada Test Site, an outdoor laboratory for nuclear testing that was established by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission soon after World War II. Many specimens from this inventory ended up at the CSU Long Beach Herbarium, where they remained undigitized and thus largely unknown for several decades. With recent digitization efforts from the California Phenology Network, however, these specimens were imaged and included in one of our latest expeditions on Notes from Nature.
​By transcribing information from specimen labels, citizen scientists helped us rediscover this historical occurrence of the rare Phacelia mustelina. These data are critical for assessing the conservation status of this species; if we know where this plant grew historically, we can better know where it might likely still exist. Once we know where and how abundantly this species exists, we can determine whether it needs protection and how to effectively do so.
If you ever wonder whether your help matters, remember the weasel phacelia. Bringing "dark data" to light can us help protect biodiversity on Earth.

Note: Although the image above doesn't show it, documentation of this species in Nevada does exist in other data portals, so this collection at the CSU Long Beach herbarium does not necessarily represent a range extension of the species.

​While working with a batch of specimens, analyzing the contents of their "notes" fields, I came across this strikingly poignant note on a specimen label: "​strong aroma reminds me of deer hunting with dad near Lake Berryessa."

​The tarweed represented by the specimen sheet is nothing particularly spectacular: a handful of cream-colored flowers, likely a little brown and shriveled due to age, on a spindly stem with thin leaves and minute hairs. The data offered by the specimen--date, location, species--are surely worthwhile for studying plant distributions, ecology, and evolution. Yet something about this quick note reminds us that plants can be even more than data points or scientific curiosities. To humans, plants can evoke memories, symbolize ideas, and encapsulate emotions,

Plants have been used as artistic symbols for centuries in art, literature, and everyday life, from giving a bouquet of roses to a lover, to commissioning a painting of yourself with a pineapple to symbolize how extravagantly wealthy you are (yes, that happened; take a look at this painting of Charles II from 1675).

Different plants are used to symbolize an enormous breadth of human emotion and experience. Oaks can represent strength and royalty (one composer called the oak "England's Tree of Liberty"); daisies can symbolize youth and innocence; in China, the plum represents longevity. Artistically and culturally, plants can remind us certain facets of our existence. Take, for example, these lines of a poem by William Wordsworth, reflecting on daffodils as symbols of joy and rebirth:

On a very personal level, the sight, smell, and even sound of plants can bring us back to pleasant days, like the tarweed collector remembered time spent with a loved one. On a walk or looking out a window, during turmoil, plants can remind us that life goes on, that nature has a way of pressing onward, and that we are all somehow connected to one another in this diverse and dynamic world.