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Spicy Peppers

Publications

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The founder of From Seed to Sprout has multiple publications as first author through New Mexico State University's Cooperative Extension Department. These publications list, highlight, and describe key characteristics for identifying landscape trees and shrubs at three different sites throughout New Mexico. Click on each picture to check out the full publication!

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Santa Fe, NM

Trees and Shrubs of St. John's College

This project took place at St. John's Liberal Arts College in Northern New Mexico and showcases all of the trees and shrubs maintained in the landscape. This guide uses key identification characteristics to help the reader identify and locate the plants described. With beautiful scenery all around, this is a must visit campus in the state of New Mexico! 

Las Cruces, NM

Trees of Young Park

This project was the most local of all of the publications. Centered in beautiful Young Park located in Las Cruces, this stunning park has over 500 trees!!! In this publication/field guide you will find a self-guiding map with different numbers associated with the different tree species. Just follow the map to each number and use the identification characteristics to learn and teach yourself how to identify each species!

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Hobbs, NM

Trees and Shrubs of New Mexico Junior College

This project was another plant identification project - this time located in Hobbs, NM. The principle remains the same as the other projects, focusing on mapping and laying out key identification features for the various plant life on this college campus.

Iron Bioaccumulation in Duckweed and Oyster Mushrooms

Over 3,000,000 gallons of contaminated acid mine tailings were released into the Animas and San Juan watersheds on August 15, 2015 leaving behind high concentrations of iron hydroxides. The orange water raised concerns for local farmers who utilized these watersheds for agricultural irrigation. Iron can complex with other metals and can also form hard precipitates out of solution (“ferricrete”), which can affect both aquatic and terrestrial life. Some plants, such as Lemna minor (duckweed), can sorb certain contaminants at high concentrations. Two nine-day experiments under controlled conditions were conducted with duckweed to assess its effectiveness in removing iron from solution. Duckweed (0.10 kg) was added to 2.9 kg H2O and 1 g fertilizer (NPK: 20-20-20) in plastic containers with three treatment levels of an iron supplement (0, 20 g, and 40 g). The 0 g iron additive or, control, consisted of water, duckweed, and fertilizer only; separate controls were established to assess if iron was binding to the fertilizer or precipitating out of solution. Water samples analyzed for total iron using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) decreased in iron concentration over time. Removal of iron from the water may have been by precipitation (reddish stains were evident on the containers), binding to fertilizer, or sorption onto or into duckweed. No differences in water iron concentrations were detected with the presence of duckweed or fertilizer (p > 0.05) indicating that neither of these factors had significant effect on iron removal when compared to iron precipitation. Duckweed was collected and oven-dried at 65 C, microwave digested using EPA Method 3052, and analyzed for total iron content via ICP-OES. The highest amount of iron sorbed by duckweed was about 17,000 parts per million (ppm) with an average sorption of 11,271 to 14,434 (± 861) ppm in the two experiments. Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) mycelium was inoculated with harvested duckweed and iron transfer into the fruiting bodies (basidiocarps) was then analyzed. The degradation ability of the iron-enriched duckweed using oyster mushroom mycelium was assessed. Mycelium was recovered from 100% of the duckweed. Understanding the behavior of high iron concentrations in watersheds will allow us to better understand how other transition metals may behave. This research will provide an understanding of duckweed use in phytoremediation of high iron concentrations while assessing the potential in the utilization of contaminated duckweed within the agricultural sector. This research will also provide a fundamental understanding of the role oyster mushrooms play in the degradation of phytoremediators and in the iron transfer between organisms.

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