NOEL H. HOLGREN

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Photo by S. A. Mori

Ph.D.: Columbia University, 1968
Title: Mary Flagler Cary Curator of Botany
Research: Scrophulariaceae, temperate floristics


I study the systematics of the Scrophulariaceae and, with my wife, Patricia Holmgren, have had a long-time interest in the floristics of the intermountain region of the western United States. We are nearing completion of the six volume Intermountain Flora and, with the artistic and editorial assistant of others, I published The Illustrated Companion to Gleason and Cronquist's Manual in 1998.

When we finish Intermountain Flora, we plan to embark on a monograph of Penstemon, a genus of the Scrophulariaceae consisting of about 300 species ranging from Alaska and southern Canada, through all 48 states of the U.S., to Mexico and Guatemala.

Our painting is a scene is from the Canyonlands of southern Utah. The hummingbird is seeking nectar from Penstemon eatonii and the bee is after pollen or nectar of Cercocarpus ledifolius. Other plants in the painting are: Cleomella palmeriana (lower right corner), Stanleya pinnata (in the gully), Oenothera caespitosa (left-center foreground), Juniperus osteosperma (center background), Castilleja scabrida (left of the base of the central Cercocarpus).

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