Sarah Jacobs: If it were easy, it wouldn’t be Castilleja

Taxonomy in Castilleja is notoriously difficult, and for good reason, since data-driven approaches to delimiting species have yielded at least as many questions as insights. This talk will highlight some insights and name remaining challenges to summarize a suggested approach towards species delimitation in the paintbrushes that acknowledges our emerging understanding of both the complex evolution this genus has experienced and the limitations of any one line of evidence to determine species boundaries. Sarah Jacobs has a BS in Biology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and an MS in Botany from Washington State University in Pullman. After a few years as a field botanist with the Forest Service in central Oregon, Sarah returned to academia to pursue a PhD at the University of Idaho in Moscow, where she worked with Dave Tank and began her research on the plant genus Castilleja (also known as “the paintbrushes”). During her postdoc with Felipe Zapata at UCLA, Sarah further developed her approach to species delimitation in the context of recent and rapid radiations. She is now an Assistant Curator in the Botany Department at the California Academy of Sciences where she runs a research lab studying the systematics of Castilleja and the early stages of speciation. She also helps direct and steward the large collection of specimens housed in the CAS herbarium, as well as contributing to the scientific endeavors of the Academy as a whole.