Final Tally

Hi everyone, Apologies for being slow to post, but my final weeks were packed with fieldwork, keying specimens in the herbarium, and organizing my things for the trip home. I’m currently writing this from back at my desk in Madison where the project video was shot. I’ll spend the next few weeks writing up and posting some stories from my more interesting collecting trips, but in the meantime, I thought I would share my final tally. I was able to secure 31 species during my trip which brings my total to 47 of the 103 species of Geissorhiza. Considering this was completed in just a field season and a half of extreme drought, I am very satisfied with the current total. Through communications associated with this crowdfunding campaign I was first invited then strongly encouraged to apply for a grant through the American Iris Society Foundation so I hope to return for one more field season next year. I can only hope that the drought will be broken and my fieldwork will be made a little easier.

Now that I’m back in Madison with my samples, it’s time to start the arduous process of extracting, amplifying, and sequencing DNA from each species. This will provide the data that I will use to build the phylogeny for the genus, the key to the rest of my research. I’ll post updates along the way.

As always, thank you! I couldn’t have done it without your support. Happy Holidays, Evan

 

Geissorhiza umbrosa perched in a sandy depression on top of Table Mountain

 

Geissorhiza callista in its rare, mossy habitat. It grows nowhere else on earth except in the mist zone of a few small mountain waterfalls.

 

Geissorhiza confusa, another long-tongued fly pollinated Geissorhiza, I found flowering en masse after a fire in the Great Winterhoek Mountains.