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Jenkins knows his way around the UA herbarium's thousands of plant specimens, some of which date back to the 1800s.

By Alexis Blue, University Communications
November 4, 2009

Name
Phil Jenkins

Position
Curatorial Specialist Senior, UA Herbarium, School of Plant Sciences

Number of years at the UA
17

Favorite part about working at the UA
"I think it's 2-pronged. I really enjoy public service and I really enjoy researching what I do."

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In Phil Jenkins' office, a small pile of hay sits on a tray on his desk. It's been blamed for the death of a Clydesdale horse and he's been asked to figure out why. The culprit, he's discovered, is bristle grass accidentally mixed in with the hay, which caused lesions inside the horse's mouth and internal organs.  

Plant-related detective work, from identifying species that have shown up unexpectedly in someone's yard to identifying a poisonous plant mistakenly ingested by a child, is just part of Jenkins' job as senior curatorial specialist for the University of Arizona Herbarium.

With its rows upon rows of cabinets, stuffed with thousands of plant specimens from around the world, the herbarium is a sort of library for plant life. Student researchers and people from the general community use the herbarium, and its searchable database of plants, for educational and personal research.

Jenkins navigates the collection of plants with ease, from the large and leafy to the short and spiny. Included in the cabinets is a plant species called Browallia eludens, which Jenkins and a colleague discovered in Santa Cruz County.

Jenkins recently sat down to talk to Lo Que Pasa in the herbarium's home in Herring Hall, the second-oldest building on the UA campus.

How many specimens are in the herbarium?
The herbarium has approximately – we're edging on – 400,000 vascular plants. We also have a collection of seeds, which is about 15,000, and we have a collection of mosses and lichens, which is probably about 5,000. ... And then we have a mycological herbarium (for fungi).

Who uses the herbarium?
We get a lot of public and we get a lot of students, a lot of graduate students.

Where do the plants come from?
About a third of our collection is from Mexico and Central America and South America – Latin America, essentially. A third is Arizona, a third is Latin America and a third is everywhere else – New Mexico, California or Madagascar or Australia – just all over the world.

How do you get the specimens?
People from Belgium, for instance, are fascinated with Southwestern plants, and so we send them plants and they send us plants that they've collected around the Mediterranean and northern Africa. ...  We also have a big exchange with local herbariums (like) ASU (Arizona State University). Unlike the sports world, we're all completely joined together in our efforts. The botanical, biological side of all the universities in Arizona is connected strongly. So we exchange back and forth all kinds of plants (with ASU and Northern Arizona University). Our two strong points (at the UA) are legumes and grasses. 

Why do community members usually visit the herbarium?
We give free (plant) identification to agencies – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, National Park Service, county park service and the general public. ... An average question is, "This came up in my yard; I've never seen it before. What in the world is it?" 

Can visitors handle the specimens?
Yeah, they just need a little bit of training. ... Most of the specimens have a little fragment packet on them, and if stuff comes loose, they are supposed to put it in that fragment packet. And never turn a specimen over.

How are the plants stored?
They're stored in folders and they're divided up by Arizona, Latin America and everyplace else in the world. They're dried and pressed and they're (mounted) on sheets of paper. They're either glued or sewn on.

How far back do the specimens date?
I found one from 1835 recently. Generally, the oldest ones we have (are) from the boundary survey when they did the Gadsden Purchase and they were realigning the boundaries between Mexico and Arizona and New Mexico, so we have a whole bunch of them from about 1849, 1850, 1851.

They don't fall apart over time?
They will stay in good shape and actually keep color if they're dried properly. We used to use something very similar to mothballs (to protect them) ... but we just do monitoring now.

What are the most unique specimens in the collection?
The "types" are probably the most unique. ... (We have) close to 1,500 "types" and what's unique about a type specimen is that it is the plant that was used to describe that species originally by some taxonomist.

Have you always had an interest in plants?
Yeah, I was raised on a farm in Washington state just north of Portland, Ore. And I worked for the forest service up there at Mount St. Helens, at Spirit Lake, long before it blew. .... (When I was young) my mother thought I was going to be an ornithologist (bird scientist) but then I decided I didn't want to get up early anymore. But as it turns out, to be a good botanist you do have to get up early in the morning sometimes, too.

What kind of plants do you have in your yard?
Our yard at home is pretty much native. There's a couple of things that aren't – we have a little Boojum (tree) and we have a Texas Ebony – but otherwise most things are native in my yard.

What are your research focuses?
I study Solanaceae, which is the family of potatoes, tomatoes, chilies and tobacco, and I'm interested in their origins in the Andes.  

What interests you most about plant studies?
For me I think it's the evolution of plants and diversity, which is in sore danger now. ... We're going through a mass extinction of our own making – meaning human-caused extinction.

Do you need an actual specimen to be able to identify it?
I'm having to do so much more identification by photography now than I ever did in the past. ... People are sending images and sometimes they get the right thing and sometimes they don't. I actually prefer to have the actual specimen because I use things like hairs to get what family a plant belongs to, and how many cells hairs have, and lots of different little things that you can't see from a photograph.

Do you know someone who has an interesting job at the UA? Send his or her name and contact information to lqp@email.arizona.edu for consideration for a future Employee Q&A.