Shasta Chapter CNPS is pleased to announce that this year’s Chapter-sponsored Northern California Botanists (NCB) Barbara Castro Memorial Student Botany Research Scholarship went to Cameron Jones, a graduate student at Cal Poly Humboldt, who is working under the supervision of of Dr. Oscar Vargas.
Northern California Botanists provides a scholarship program for undergraduate and graduate students conducting research on botanical topics in northern California. Each year, Shasta Chapter CNPS provides funding to Northern California Botanists for an additional $1000 Research Scholarship. In addition to NCB’s general scholarship criteria, the recipient of the Shasta Chapter-funded scholarship must meet at least one of the following two criteria: (1) the student’s research topic is relevant to the flora within the boundaries of the Shasta Chapter; or (2) the student hails from the Shasta Chapter CNPS area.
Cameron meets the both criterion: not only does he hail from Shasta County, but his research on assessing species boundaries and evolutionary origin of the rare Humboldt Bay wallflower, Erysimum menziesii, will necessitate field work in both Siskiyou and Shasta counties.
Cameron graduated from Shasta College in 2019, where he studied Oceanography and Natural Sciences. During his time at Shasta College, he took his first Botany course with Dr. Susannah Fulton, sparking his interest in local flora. He then transferred to Cal Poly Humboldt, where he studied Biology with a concentration in Ecology. At Humboldt, he began working with Dr. Oscar Vargas, assisting with transcribing and georeferencing herbarium collections. After graduating from Cal Poly Humboldt in the fall of 2022, he joined Dr. Vargas’s lab as a graduate student. As Cameron explains,
My research involves assessing the species boundaries and evolutionary origin of Erysimum menziesii (CRPR 1B.1; Federal Rank: FE) by collecting plant tissue for phylogenetic analysis from E. menziesii, E. concinnum, and E. capitatum found throughout northern California. Erysimum is known as a taxonomically complex genus due to overlapping morphological features that make it difficult to distinguish different species. Improper identification hinders potential conservation efforts allotted for rare and endangered species like E. menziesii. Additionally, by pinpointing which species E. menziesii descended from, I will be contributing to our understanding of how microevolutionary processes promote speciation within the California Floristic Province. Thank you Shasta Chapter so much for the funding and for assisting me with my botanical journey!
The Shasta Chapter CNPS wishes Cameron all the best in his future botanical endeavors. Perhaps one day, in the not-too-distant future, we will be able to get Cameron to give us a presentation on his work! ~Shasta Chapter CNPS