Plant Conservation
Andrea Tietmeyer

Endangered Plant Specialist
B.A., Macalester College, 2000

I came to the Chicago Botanic Garden as an intern in June 2000, shortly after graduating with a double major in biology and environmental studies. I began a position as Endangered Plant Specialist in January 2001. This position was funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and involved the coordination of a Web site for the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) that details the current status of over 575 threatened and endangered plants in the United States. This project was completed in December of 2002, and is now hosted on the Center for Plant Conservation’s Web site at http://www.mobot.org/CPC/NC_Choice.html.

At the beginning of 2003, I transitioned to a new project that is funded by a grant from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This project involves scientists at the Chicago Botanic Garden, as well as other CPC member institutions, researching the restoration genetics of six plant taxa (three Eriogonum and three Penstemon species) in the Great Basin area of Nevada and Utah. Molecular and quantitative genetic data will be collected on these common taxa, and the importance of ecotype selection in restoration & remediation work will be addressed. I will help to coordinate and carry out this research, and hope to use this grant and the data generated as a basis for graduate work in the area of restoration genetics beginning in the Fall of 2003.

While working on these grant-funded projects, I have been able to carry out a few small research projects involving potentially invasive horticultural species in the Chicago area. I have also been involved in a number of work groups and task forces that are addressing research, management and policy issues in the areas of invasive species, restoration, and plant conservation. I have worked on V. conspersa, I have been involved with many projects, including research on Viola conspersa, Platanthera leucophaea, Lespedeza leptostachya, Lobelia cardinalis, Lobelia syphilitica and Cirsium pitcheri.


Contact Information
Andrea Tietmeyer
(847) 835-6971
atietmey@chicagobotanic.org



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