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Patty Manning was recognized for “amazing botanical contributions” during an awards ceremony at the 2014 Texas Plant Conservation Conference held November 7 at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Patty has been a member of our Big Bend Chapter in Alpine since 2002. She retired as greenhouse manager at Sul Ross State University last May after 17 years.
“Patty contributed many fine plant specimens to the Sul Ross Herbarium, often collected at sites seldom visited by other collectors,” according to Mike Powell, emeritus professor of biology at Sul Ross and director of the herbarium. “She had a knack for spotting and preserving records for poorly known plant species, including the rediscovery of a taxon not known for the Trans-Pecos region since 1914.”
According to Martin Terry, assistant professor of biology at Sul Ross, “She is always ready to go with her plant press to explore little-known properties and collect specimens of the common and the uncommon plants that represent the flora of a place.” Terry said that thanks to generations of Sul Ross botanists including Patty, the herbarium at Sul Ross houses the third largest collection of plant specimens in Texas.
Patty prefers to describe her contributions in terms of how she has helped others. “I like having facilitated other people’s research,” she said. “I opened up what I know to other people – graduate students, nurseries, native plant gardeners and the general public. I’ve just been doing what I like doing.”
Retirement means raising chickens and tending several garden plots on her acreage in southwest Alpine as well as seed collecting and contract field work for various organizations, including the Wildflower Center. In addition, she is an avid reader. Patty and her life partner, Cindy Wimberly, have spent 21 years together and were recently married in New York City.
The Texas Plant Conservation Conference is co-hosted by the Wildflower Center, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It’s goal is to foster communication among conservation organizations, agencies, academics and the public about native plant conservation.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: julieallen
