Member Story: Discovering the Secret World of Native Plants By: Taylor Keefer, Marketing and Communications Specialist
Dida and Rich Merrill in the Garden, 2022
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ifty some years ago, Dida Merrill was attending the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), for her undergraduate schooling in zoology and was told she was required to take a botany course. Dida thought, “Do I really have to take botany”, she imagined that it would be a sitting in a lab course. Soon enough, Dida found herself in the field biology class taught by J.R. "Bob" Haller, Ph.D., unprepared for the revelation that would open her eyes to experience the secret world of native plants. Haller, a renowned California botanist, frequently took his classes on field trips to Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, opening the door for a passion for plants that had yet to be discovered. “The Garden was absolutely beautiful back then. Not just the plant connection, but the native plant connection started for me with that field botany class,” Dida said. “That’s where I learned it’s not just
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a backdrop of flowers — if it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t be life.” Dida couldn’t wait to get home and share what she had learned with her husband, Rich Merrill, who was also a student at UCSB studying environmental studies. Rich considered his study of ecosystem dynamics and invertebrates “pretty far from plants.” However, retracing Haller’s one-of-a-kind field trips with Dida to deserts, mountains, and Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Rich was converted. They both were pointed toward a new trajectory in life as their awareness of the relationship between native plants and the well-being of entire communities grew. “Although my study was in ecosystem dynamics, the foundation of an ecosystem is plants, and the native plants are the foundation of it all,” Rich said. “I recognized that the well-being of native habitats is crucial. What was taught in that class was legendary.”
