Organization Description California State University, Long Beach, known nationally as "The Beach," is a hub of diversity, both culturally and intellectually. The 322-acre campus is designed to encourage student involvement and success. We are a diverse, student-centered, globally-engaged public university committed to providing high-valued undergraduate educational opportunities through superior teaching, research, creative activity and service for the people of California and the world. CSULB is committed to make a positive contribution to the greater society by developing responsible citizens, with highly valued degrees, for the 21st century. And we strive to graduate students who are skilled problem-solvers and practioners of their disciplines through participation in research projects, creative endeavors, community service learning, and internships.
Program Information General Description:
The herbarium has approximately 17,000 specimens preserved as dried, pressed specimens. We are a permanent scientific repository registered with Index Herbariorum and use the acronym LOB. We are also a member of the Consortium of California Herbaria (CCH).
Nearly 70% of our specimens are Southern California native plants with a focus on Los Angeles County and Orange County. Fourteen percent of the specimens are from North Carolina. Important collections include former curator Phil Baker's North American specimens and Jim Shevock's vouchers for his M.A. thesis titled "A vascular flora of Lloyd Meadows Basin, Sequoia National Forest, Tulare County, California." The collection is actively growing with vouchers from courses and undergraduate and graduate floristics projects. The collection is used in Introductory Biology, Plant Ecology, Plant Morphology, and Plant Systematics classes.
What students will be doing at this site:
Interns will image specimens in the herbarium as part of a large network of California museums and universities. The goal of the project is to study the timing of when particular plant species flower and fruit and how that has changed over the last 150 years. The project website is: https://www.capturingcaliforniasflowers.org. Interns will receive training in museum specimen preservation and handling, digitization and imaging using a light box. Interns will also visit a museum for a behinds-the-scene look at a larger collection and talk with researchers about how these collections are used for conservation (among other things- new species discovery, documenting populations of rare plants, and the goal of the grant- understanding how flowering is changing due to warming climate and testing for disassociation of plant-pollinator interactions). The interns would potentially have the opportunity to meet with other students across California who are also working on this project and go to a conference to present a poster on our role in the project.