Ardmore's Naturalist Students Collect Rare Plants for Hudson Alpha



It is a unique experience for students to be able to handle rare or endangered species. Not only are their locations usually kept secret, but it carries a penalty of up to $10,000 and jail time. Fortunately for Ardmore's Naturalist Studies kids, they are protected with the proper permits as they participate in two separate projects: one for Hudson Alpha's Bicentennial Barcoding initiative and one for a university collection. These lucky students got to see and handle some of the really cool plants that they had studied about in preparation for this field study.

The students are helping Hudson Alpha with their goal of genetically cataloging Alabama's native plants. Janice Barrett of Wildsouth is our community liaison for the project and accompanied us to various locations throughout Lawrence and Morgan counties. Students collected a small sample of the plant and recorded information such as GPS coordinates, who collected it and the date. The samples will be sent off for DNA extraction, and then students will match the genetic sequences to existing bar codes in a database. They are hoping that they find a species that is not already cataloged in the International Barcode of Life.

The students will continue to travel to various locations throughout the state of Alabama to collect samples for DNA extraction. Next stop, Columbiana and after that, Conecuh National Forest!


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