The Washington-Idaho border cuts across some of the most fertile soil in the world, a blazing hot valley containing Idaho’s lowest point (and its only seaport!), and ancient mountaintops buried to the neck in younger rock. Each has its own flora – from tiny desert parsleys (Lomatium) that flower and disappear before May, to the northernmost reach of an entire plant family, plastered against a sheer cliff, to meadows so crammed full of flowers they barely qualify as grassland. This is also a land in peril – less than 10% of the grasslands and meadows remain, and much of what does is fighting an uphill battle with invasive organisms. This presentation will introduce the plants and habitats of far southeastern Washington and adjacent Idaho, including the Palouse, Snake River canyon, and surrounding mountains.

Alexander Wright (Graduate Student, Washington State University )
Alex is a graduate student at Washington State University, where he works on evolution of Oregon Grape and relatives (Berberis). He has also worked in collections management at botanical gardens, and currently holds the title of Curator at Bellevue Botanical Garden. His first introduction to WNPS was at the age of 12, when he tagged along on the annual backpacking trip (now the Jim Riley Memorial Backpack).