FernZenMosses

I was raised in India, attending school in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains from kindergarten through high school. My three month winter home was three days’ train ride to and from the Deccan Plateau. 

Early in life I fell in love with mountains and nature. I collected ferns, beetles, and butterflies, tracked birds and mammals, and chased snakes. After returning to the USA I obtained my college and graduate school training in Washington State. Received B.A. (1968, Biology, Chemistry and Geology) from University of Puget Sound, Tacoma;  M.S. (1974) and Ph.D. (1976) in Botany from Washington State University in Pullman. From there I moved directly to Eugene, Oregon, where I have lived and worked for 49 years. I was Director and Curator of the University of Oregon Herbarium 1976 to 1993 while teaching as Associate Professor of Biology.

Since 1993 I have operated the Northwest Botanical Institute, dedicated to research, education, conservation, and public service. I specialize in ferns, mosses and liverworts. My focus is on field botany and taxonomy. I am deeply involved with the Eugene Natural History Society. I was on the Board of Mt. Pisgah Arboretum for many years. I created the Willamette Valley Nature Calendar for many years, put it on hiatus for three years starting in 2012, eventually publishing the last “Best of the Best” in 2025.  I wrote an illustrated monthly nature column, "It's About Time," for the Eugene Weekly newspaper for 12 years.

My major taxonomic efforts are treatments contributed to Flora of North America (Vol. 2 & 29) and a Guide to the Liverworts of Oregon which describes all 172 species of liverworts found in Oregon. Its dichotomous keys use ~1500 photomicrographs to illustrate critical identification characters.