Yuccas are a widespread and important keystone species in our desert and mountain landscapes throughout the Southwest. Wendy will share the story of the incredible relationship between yuccas and hesperoyuccas and their pollinators. She will highlight incredible research by passionate investigators from the time these pollination relationships were first announced to the scientific world to the present, focusing on species occurring within our Sonoran and Mohave deserts. She will also address important questions as to how these pollination mutualisms will be affected by climate challenges.
Wendy has lived in and loved the Sonoran Desert for 55 years. She is Herbarium Curator Emerita and Senior Research Botanist at the Desert Botanical Garden. She studies southwest U.S. and northern Mexico floristics, with an emphasis on the Grand Canyon region. She also investigates the ecology of rare and endemic plants of the Southwestern US and northern Mexico and conducts research on the taxonomy and systematics of Agave, Yucca, and Hesperoyucca, including the study of pre-contact agave domesticated species. As an ethnobotanist, Wendy also specializes in Sonoran Desert food plants, and is the author of Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert. She has collected over 33,500 herbarium specimens, including thousands of specimens in difficult groups like Agavaceae and Cactaceae. Wendy works to foster diverse participation and collaboration in science by all interested parties, including community scientists and especially Indigenous Peoples, whose voices we have neglected to hear for far too long.