Prairie Research Program

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The Prairie Research Program (PReP) includes projects related to natural resource management, ecology, native vegetation, and stewardship of prairie and rangeland habitats. We collaborate with landowners to investigate plant biodiversity metrics, often associated with disturbance events (past and present).

Each of these projects involves plant identification, vegetation surveys, documentation and monitoring, and data collection in the field, as well as organization and analysis of data. Some of the projects also include an educational and outreach component involving collaborating organizations and individuals. Students who would like to volunteer with the program—including those majoring in Natural Resource Management, Rangeland Ecology and Management, or a similar curriculum or those broadly interested in field botany— should contact Dr. Brooke Best.

Current Prairie projects:

Biodiversity Assessment: All Saints’ Episcopal School

Native Tallgrass Prairie Remediation: Private Ranch

BRIT Urban Prairie

Living Laboratories: Private Ranch

Rolling Plains Rangeland Restoration: Wind Farm

Brooke Byerley Best, Ph.D.

Director of Texas Plant Conservation

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Herbarium specimen from AABP project - Blakea spindet

Newsletter

Armchair Botany and the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program: Volunteers Make Scientists’ Hard Work Accessible

Important botanical science happens in the field. Researchers tramp across habitats, sometimes in remote and rugged regions of the world, collect plant samples, document the distribution of species and study ecosystems in action. Later those scientists return to the lab with boxes of specimens, and a new and equally important phase of research begins. Scientists label, mount and digitize specimens to make them accessible to the global science community. They become a resource that can be studied in multiple contexts–as part of an ecosystem or as a member of a particular plant family, for example.

BRIT Staff September 8, 2023

Newsletter

Survival of the Heat-Tolerant: How Plants Cope with Hot, Dry Conditions

Our hot, dry summer continues, and humans aren’t the only ones struggling. Plants suffer, too–yet some thrive despite the persistent 100-degree-plus temperatures, even without supplemental water. What’s their secret?

BRIT Staff August 3, 2023

Eriocaulon koernickianum or small-heded pipewort. Photo by Don Hunter

Newsletter

Tales from the Conservation Trenches : Saving the Small-headed Pipewort

A well-known issue in global conservation efforts could be described as the Panda Problem. Programs that promote the protection of large, well-known mammals raise more funds than programs for smaller, less “charismatic” species. Yet even the smallest, nondescript species are part of the big picture of life on this planet–and deserve protection.

BRIT Staff July 7, 2023

Newsletter

Why All the Latin? Taxonomy, Binomial Nomenclature and Carl Linnaeus

When you visit the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, you will notice signs identifying the plants. In the Japanese Garden, for example, you will see signs that read “Acer palmatum (Japanese maple).” Many people know that the part of the name in italics is the formal name of the plant, written in Latin (more or less.) Some people might even know that Acer palmatum is the genus and species of the tree more commonly known as Japanese maple. But why? What is the purpose of giving plants names in a dead language?

BRIT Staff June 6, 2023

Photos of newly discovered Begonia fritschiana

Newsletter

Newly Described Species of Begonia Named after VP of Research & Conservation Peter Fritsch

Botanists working in the Philippines recently described a species of begonia new to science and named it in honor of Peter Fritsch, the Garden’s vice president of research and conservation.

BRIT Staff May 4, 2023

Row of bright blue and white bluebonnets

Newsletter

The Botany of Bluebonnets, Texas’s Favorite Flower

The bluebonnets are in bloom across North Texas, splashing waves of blue across hillsides and plains. Conditions this year were just right for brilliant display of color, and you can expect to see families plunking their kids down in the middle of blooming patches for photos all weekend.

BRIT Staff April 6, 2023

Prairie Research Program

Research Team

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