UB Observers Identify Native Plant on List of Rarities
June 12, 2018
Contact: Office of Government and Public Affairs
Phone: 410.837.5739
During the recent 2018 City Nature Challenge—a call for communities across the country, including Baltimore, to document urban biodiversity through crowd sourcing and the iNaturalist app—a University of Baltimore participant noticed something rare: a fern growing in the cracks of a railroad bridge near campus, later identified as a purple-stem cliffbrake (Pellaea atropurpurea). (Photo of the plant above.)
The sighting made the news, and now this observation is the subject of a podcast by The Baltimore Sun's Dan Rodricks. The piece centers on an interview with Wolf T. Pecher, associate professor in the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences and its Division of Science, Information Arts and Technologies. Prof. Pecher and Stanley J. Kemp, also an associate professor in the Division of Science, Information Arts and Technologies, organized a trip to the Jones Falls near campus as part of the City Nature Challenge observations. UB partnered with the National Aquarium to help Baltimore make its mark on the map this year.
Listen to the podcast.
The City Nature Challenge is organized by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Learn more about Baltimore's efforts in this year's City Nature Challenge.
Get the iNaturalist app, free in both the App Store and Google Play.
Learn about UB's B.A. in Environmental Sustainability and Human Ecology.