Sunday, August 9, 2009

Bruce Parfitt's Research is Still Informing Taxonomy

John Ander-son, state botan-ist for the Bureau of Land Manage-ment headquartered in Phoenix Arizona, reported in June that it was discovered that a potentilla collected by Bruce is a new species -- Potentilla demotica. Formerly thought to be P. subviscos.

Bruce collected the specimen in 1979 in the northern Hualapai Mountains of Arizona when he worked as a field biologist for the Bureau

of Land Management -- helicoptered in to remote areas, hiking the rough terrain to collect, identify and preserve rare species.

That work still provides the foundation for research and identification today. The new species name was published by Barbara Ertter in the Journal of Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

In late July, col-league John Daniels took these photos of Potentilla demotica (above) and its setting -- the Hualapai Mountians where Bruce and Mary Butterwick collected the speciman. It appears from the terrain that Bruce was quite a hiker!


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