Plant Collections

Morgan tracked the diversity of plants in the Santa Cruz Mountains since the early 1970s. His voucher collection of over 5,000 plants (all held by the Norris Center) and plant releveés from over 500 locations spanning the last 35 years have formed the basis for our understanding of the current botanical diversity within the Santa Cruz Mountains.

In 2005, Morgan published An Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Santa Cruz County, which contains a full list of Santa Cruz County plants as well as detailed taxonomic notes, lists of endangered plants and county endemics, and maps of the diverse habitats found in the county. As a plant taxonomist, Morgan described a number of new species, including: Agrostis lacuni-vernalis, Chorizanthe robusta Parry var. hartwegii, Polygonum hickmanii, Piperia candida, P. colemanii, P. elegans, Rydb. subsp. decurtata, P. yadonii, Trifolium jokerstii (in press), and Trifolium piorkowskii (in press). His continued work on several species complexes within the Trifolium genus have led him to collect and observe species of Trifolium beyond central California. His extensive notes and collected specimens from over 20 years of study made him a world authority on this genus.