I am currently a graduate student at UC Berkeley working on the symbiotic interactions between bacteria, mycorrhizal fungi, and plants. I had an interest in plants since a very young age. This interest never went away and I find myself completely surrounded by plants where ever I go.
When I moved to California from Louisiana (quite a dramatic change), I discovered a whole new world of bulbs. It first started with a research project to study the phylogeny of California onions. A copy of the research paper can be found here. I was introduced to more interesting bulbs by Jacob Knecht and was hooked since. I also love photography, and plants are one of my most favorite subjects. I have added a lot of these photos to the Wiki where they best fit.
My interests in bulbs are most anything in the Amaryllidaceae but especially South African and American species. I also love native California geophytes like Calochortus, especially the fairy lanterns, anything in the Themidaceae (including Triteleia, Brodiaea, Dichelostemma), Mexican geophytes, South African Hyacinthaceae like Lachenalia and Ledebouria, interesting Oxalis with strange leaf morphology, and South African irids. In terms of edaphic factors, I love serpentine and pretty much anything that grows on it. Serpentine is a type of a greenish rock that has very high levels of magnesium which makes it toxic to most plants. Some Californian natives, especially bulbs, have found ways to deal with this toxicity and became endemic to serpentine outcrops.
I also grow a miscellany of other non-monocots including proteaceous plants, Impatiens, and Drosera.
Email: xerantheum@gmail.com
Photography website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xerantheum/
Berkeley weather: Dry, cool summers, practically no rain from June - October Wet and mild winters from Nov - May. I live atop a hill so I do see a light frost on the grass before dawn in the middle of winter. Most of the time, blue skies and cool air.