Course Spotlight
Biology 125: Plant Taxonomy
By BoNhia Lee
Biology at Fresno State is multifaceted, though a majority of students are interested in health careers. This was true for recent graduate Giovanna Munoz-Gonzalez, who wanted to become a dentist, until she discovered a love for plants after taking numerous biology courses.
One of her most influential courses, and one that solidified her confidence as a biologist, was Dr. Katherine Waselkov’s plant taxonomy class. In this course, also known as Biology 125, students conduct fieldwork and collect flowering plants to bring back to the lab for dissection and identification before they press, categorize and digitize them for inclusion in the Fresno State Herbarium.
The herbarium has a collection of 40,000 pressed flowers and plants on paper that represent the diversity of plant species in the Central Valley and surrounding environments, dating to the late 1800s. The herbarium was established in 1925 by Dr. Charles H. Quibell, who was a biology professor at Fresno State.
Biology at Fresno State covers everything from the workings of molecular and cellular biology to the structure, conservation and restoration of ecosystems. About 75% of the students who take Waselkov’s courses are interested in health careers while the other 25% are attuned to other possibilities, she said.
