Kenton Chambers

Biography and Botany

Some Perspectives In her request for autobiographical remarks, our editor told me to “keep it brief.” I’ll do my best, but please remember the directions for that Mechanical Professor toy, “Wind it up, and it gives a lecture.” My reasons for choosing botanical taxonomy as a career are several. Firstly, I like the Natural History branches of biology, because they represent the visual (vs. the mathematical) realm of science, and they deal with the recognition and appreciation of the forms and patterns of natural objects. All botanists, whether amateur or professional, know what it means to have an “eye” for plants. How else could we amaze our friends when, driving down a highway at 60 miles per hour, we suddenly screech to a halt because we “saw something unusual” growing by the roadside?

A geologist might react the same way to a strange rock formation; but for us, plants are the attraction. When I ask myself, “Why plants, instead of rocks, birds, or bugs?” I think it’s because I admire how subtle plants are in their behaviors and adaptations, their modes of reproduction and dispersal, and their biotic interactions!

Recently, we have become aware of even more amazing subtleties in their genetic systems–parasitic DNA, transposons, cryptic polyploidy, pseudogenes, etc. Plants are not simply green animals; their unique qualities deserve our special study. Wildflowers are a particular attraction to me. I like the fact that their forms and patterns are the products of natural evolutionary processes, and their classification, therefore, represents taxa based on true historical, phylogenetic relationships. It has been said that, “In biology, nothing makes sense except in the light of evolution.” We must keep that fact in mind when we admire and praise the exquisite forms and colors of wildflowers. We might like to think that such beauty exists for our enjoyment, but let’s remember that the plants evolved as they did because their survival depended on it. Unlike cultivated plants, which are mostly human creations, wild species exist for their own sake, and we are merely their observers and beneficiaries.

– Kenton L. Chambers, Corvallis Chapter