Illustrations in the Grand Canyon Project
by
Susan E. Ashton
The
Grand Canyon Project is an effort to improve the documentation of the
plants of the Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon National Park is best known
for its broad vistas of the striking geography of the canyon. Less well
known is that the Grand Canyon National Park is home to more plant
species than any other national park. The present field guides to these
plants do not, however, include enough of the key characteristics of
the plants and lack illustrations for many of the plants. The Grand
Canyon Project was started to provide the illustrations to many of the
important plants of the Grand Canyon. The project was started by Wendy Hodgson, Herbarium Curator at Phoenix's Desert
Botanical Garden, and Lori Makarick,
the Vegetation Manager at the Grand Canyon. The illustrations were
done by students in the botanical illustration program at the Desert
Botanical Garden, including Susan. Illustrations of plants are
often more useful for plant identification than photographs since they
can ensure that key features are well presented, and lack the
background distraction present in photographs. Most of the
pictures below were in the exhibit "Grand Canyon's Green Heart; The
Unsung Legacy of Plants" at the Kolb
Studio on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, July 2 - August 31, 2010
and again December 10, 2010
through the end of February 2011.
Click on image for
enlarged view.
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All art on this web site
is copyrighted by Susan Ashton, 2010.
For information contact SAshtonArt@cox.net.
