Monthly Program: The Language of Flora: Two Botanists Share Their Journey

Botanists Erica Fontanez and Mia Manfredi will explain their research and findings to date. Come learn from two different scholars researching very different species! Please join us as we celebrate their work and enjoy their findings. Ms. Fontanez and Ms. Manfredi are recipients of the Chapter’s 2026 Research Grants program.

Erica Fontanez is a first-year master student at the California Botanic Garden studying taxonomic relationships with the genus Chloropyron, an herbaceous hemi-parasitic annual restricted to coastal and inland salt marshes throughout California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Baja California, MX.  

Mia Manfreidi is currently a second-year master’s student at California Botanic Garden where she is studying the disjunct distribution of Salvia funerea (Death Valley Sage). Her broad research interests include spatial and molecular ecology, biodiversity conservation, and global change biology.