Jon Rebman Conserving The Rare Plants of Baja California

Slow Baja

Jon P. Rebman is the Curator of Botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Originally from rural Illinois, Rebman landed a Fulbright Fellowship that took him to study in Ensenada. During his year south of the border, Rebman traveled the peninsula cataloging cholla cacti with his fellow students and the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California faculty. He credits this formative experience for igniting his passion for the region's rare endemic flora.

Rebman earned a doctorate from Arizona State University and wrote his dissertation on the Cylindropuntia (Chollas) cactus family of Baja California. He is a profoundly energetic expert on Southern and Baja California plants and is relentless in identifying them. Rebman says, "if you can't name it, you can't conserve it." Through the crowd-sourced iNaturalist App, Rebman has answered more than 500,000 plant genus inquiries, I am optimistic he will hit a million answers soon.

Rebman authored the Baja California Plant Field Guide with Norman Roberts and co-authored the stunning new bilingual photographic book A Guide To The Flora Of The Sierra De San Pedro Martir. Both are available from the San Diego Natural History Museum Shop here.

Thanks to Cypress Hansen at the Nat for walking me through the fabulous new Expedition Baja display and for her work arranging this conversation. Additional thanks to Robert Blaker and his daughter, Sierra Blaker, for planting the seed for this show more than a year ago.

Check out Expedition Baja here.

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