The Southwest Chapter of the Colorado Native Plant Society will host a presentation about geology, Navajo ethnobotany and the rare plants of the Four Corners by Arnold Clifford at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Lyceum Room of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College.
Clifford is an expert on the flora of the Navajo Nation and surrounding area and an ethnobotanist. He began learning about plants at age 9 from his grandmother, who taught him about the holy Navajo plant world. Western scientific botany is an extension of that learning process. He will talk about the plants of the San Juan Basin, from low-elevation deserts to the alpine tundra, including the underlying geologic features.
Arnold, a member of the Navajo Nation, studied geology at FLC and is a co-author of “Flora of the Four Corners Region.” He has discovered a multitude of new plant species and has several species named for him, such as Aliciella cliffordii.
