The Botanists at Crater Lake National Park by Elizabeth L. Horn

While Buktenica is looking at moss beneath the lake’s surface, Steve Jessup of Southern Oregon University is surveying the mosses along the lakeshore. There, an environment shaded by steep caldera walls in proximity to the cold water of the lake creates a cool, moist habitat for species of mosses and liverworts that are normally found further north. Partially funded by the Crater Lake Natural History Association, Jessup’s two-year survey began in 2004. One of the first moss specimens he found was a species not previously recorded elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest, the closest known location being at higher elevations in the Rocky Mountains (S. Jessup, pers. comm.).

Mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) along Garfield Peak Trail. Photo by E. Horn.